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In Every Community There Are Little Knots Of Fantastic Extremists Who Loudly Proclaim That They Are Striving For Righteousness, And Who, In Reality, Do Their Feeble Best For Unrighteousness. Just As The Upright Politician Should Hold In Peculiar Scorn The Man Who Makes The Name Of Politician A Reproach And A Shame, So The Genuine Reformer Should Realize That The Cause He Champions Is Especially Jeopardized By The Mock Reformer Who Does What He Can To Make Reform A Laughingstock Among Decent Men.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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In Every Community There

Theodore Roosevelt

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In Every Community There Are Little Knots Of Fantastic Extremists Who Loudly Proclaim That They Are Striving For Righteousness, And Who, In Reality, Do Their Feeble Best For Unrighteousness. Just As The Upright Politician Should Hold In Peculiar Scorn The Man Who Makes The Name Of Politician A Reproach And A Shame, So The Genuine Reformer Should Realize That The Cause He Champions Is Especially Jeopardized By The Mock Reformer Who Does What He Can To Make Reform A Laughingstock Among Decent Men.

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I Never Won Anything Without Hard Labor And The Exercise Of My Best Judgment.

The Name Roosevelt Has This Legendary Force In Our Country At This Time.

In The Grand Canyon, Arizona Has A Natural Wonder Which Is In Kind Absolutely Unparalleled Throughout The Rest Of The World. I Want To Ask You To Keep This Great Wonder Of Nature As It Now Is. I Hope You Will Not Have A Building Of Any Kind, Not A Summer Cottage, A Hotel Or Anything Else, To Mar The Wonderful Grandeur, The Sublimity, The Great Loneliness And Beauty Of The Canyon. Leave It As It Is. You Cannot Improve On It. The Ages Have Been At Work On It, And Man Can Only Mar It.

From Reading Of The People I Admired - Ranging From The Soldiers Of Valley Forge And Morgan's Riflemen To My Southern Forefathers And Kinfolk - I Felt A Great Admiration For Men Who Were Fearless And Who Could Hold Their Own In The World. And I Had A Great Desire To Be Like Them.

The Only Man Who Makes No Mistakes Is The Man Who Never Does Anything. Do Not Be Afraid To Make Mistakes Providing You Do Not Make The Same One Twice.

The Constitution Guarantees Protection To Property, And We Must Make That Promise Good. But It Does Not Give The Right Of Suffrage To Any Corporation. It Is Necessary That Laws Should Be Passed To Prohibit The Use Of Corporate Funds Directly Or Indirectly For Political Purposes; It Is Still More Necessary That Such Laws Should Be Thoroughly Enforced.

The Welfare Of Each Of Us Is Dependent Fundamentally Upon The Welfare Of All Of Us

One Of Our Defects As A Nation Is A Tendency To Use What Have Been Called ''weasel Words.'' When A Weasel Sucks Eggs The Meat Is Sucked Out Of The Egg. If You Use A ''weasel Word'' After Another There Is Nothing Left Of The Other.

To Borrow A Simile From The Football Field, We Believe That Men Must Play Fair, But That There Must Be No Shirking, And That The Success Can Only Come To The Player Who Hits The Line Hard.

Let Us Show, Not Merely In Great Crises, But In Every Day Of Life, Qualities Of Practical Intelligence, Of Hardihood And Endurance, And Above All, The Power Of Devotion To A Lofty Ideal.

Courage, Hard Work, Self-mastery, And Intelligent Effort Are All Essential To Successful Life.

Nothing Worth Having Was Ever Achieved Without Effort.

Fitness Motivational

The Country Is The Place For Children, And If Not The Country, A City Small Enough So That One Can Get Out Into The Country.

It Is An Incalculable Added Pleasure To Any One's Sum Of Happiness If He Or She Grows To Know, Even Slightly And Imperfectly, How To Read And Enjoy The Wonder-book Of Nature.

There Is Not A Man Of Us Who Does Not At Times Need A Helping Hand To Be Stretched Out To Him, And Then Shame Upon Him Who Will Not Stretch Out The Helping Hand To His Brother.

Only Those Are Fit To Live Who Do Not Fear To Die And None Are Fit To Die Who Have Shrunk From The Joy Of Life And The Duty Of Life.

The Effort To Make Financial Or Political Profit Out Of The Destruction Of Character Can Only Result In Public Calamity. Gross And Reckless Assaults On Character, Whether On The Stump Or In Newspaper, Magazine, Or Book, Create A Morbid And Vicious Public Sentiment, And At The Same Time Act As A Profound Deterrent To Able Men Of Normal Sensitiveness And Tend To Prevent Them From Entering The Public Service At Any Price.

The Decisions Of The Courts On Economic And Social Questions Depend On Their Economic And Social Philosophy.

A Man Must First Care For His Own Household Before He Can Be Of Use To The State. But No Matter How Well He Cares For His Household, He Is Not A Good Citizen Unless He Also Takes Thought Of The State. In The Same Way, A Great Nation Must Think Of Its Own Internal Affairs; And Yet It Cannot Substantiate Its Claim To Be A Great Nation Unless It Also Thinks Of Its Position In The World At Large.

There Is Something To Be Said For Government By A Great Aristocracy Which Has Furnished Leaders To The Nation In Peace And War For Generations; Even A Democrat Like Myself Must Admit This.

The Only Tyrannies From Which Men, Women And Children Are Suffering In Real Life Are The Tyrannies Of Minorities.

I Do. That Is Character!

I Have Now Run Up Against An Ugly Snag, The Sunday Excise Law. It Is Altogether Too Strict, But I Have No Honorable Alternative Save To Enforce It And I Am Enforcing It, To The Furious Rage Of The Saloon Keepers, And Of Many Good People Too; For Which I Am Sorry.

War With Evil; But Show No Spirit Of Malignity Toward The Man Who May Be Responsible For The Evil. Put It Out Of His Power To Do Wrong.

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy.

Difficult Times

The Good Citizen Will Demand Liberty For Himself, And As A Matter Of Pride He Will See To It That Others Receive The Liberty Which He Thus Claims As His Own. Probably The Best Test Of True Love Of Liberty In Any Country Is The Way In Which Minorities Are Treated In That Country. Not Only Should There Be Complete Liberty In Matters Of Religion And Opinion, But Complete Liberty For Each Man To Lead His Life As He Desires, Provided Only That In So Doing He Does Not Wrong His Neighbor.

Nine Tenths Of Wisdom Consists In Being Wise In Time.

The Americans Of Other Blood Must Remember That The Man Who In Good Faith And Without Reservations Gives Up Another Country For This Must In Return Receive Exactly The Same Rights, Not Merely Legal, But Social And Spiritual, That Other Americans Proudly Possess. We Of The United States Belong To A New And Separate Nationality. We Are All Americans And Nothing Else, And Each, Without Regard To His Birthplace, Creed, Or National Origin, Is Entitled To Exactly The Same Rights As All Other Americans.

There Are Always In Life Countless Tendencies For Good And For Evil, And Each Succeeding Generation Sees Some Of These Tendencies Strengthened And Some Weakened; Nor Is It By Any Means Always, Alas! That The Tendencies For Evil Are Weakened And Those For Good Strengthened. But During The Last Few Decades There Certainly Have Been Some Notable Changes For Good In Boy Life. The Great Growth In The Love Of Athletic Sports, For Instance, While Fraught With Danger If It Becomes One-sided And Unhealthy, Has Beyond All Question Had An Excellent Effect In Increased Manliness.

Materially We Must Strive To Secure A Broader Economic Opportunity For All Men, So That Each Shall Have A Better Chance To Show The Stuff Of Which He Is Made.

The Unforgivable Crime Is Soft Hitting. Do Not Hit At All If It Can Be Avoided; But Never Hit Softly.

Those Who Advocate Total Lack Of Regulation, Those Who Advocate Lawlessness In The Business World, Themselves Give The Strongest Impulse To What I Believe Would Be The Deadening Movement Toward Unadulterated State Socialism.

I Would A Great Deal Rather Be Anything, Say Professor Of History, Than Vice President.

There Is A Homely Old Adage Which Runs: "speak Softly And Carry A Big Stick; You Will Go Far." If The American Nation Will Speak Softly, And Yet Build And Keep At A Pitch Of The Highest Training A Thoroughly Efficient Navy, The Monroe Doctrine Will Go Far.

It Is Not Only Highly Desirable But Necessary That There Should Be Legislation Which Shall Carefully Shield The Interests Of Wage-workers, And Which Shall Discriminate In Favor Of The Honest And Humane Employer By Removing The Disadvantage Under Which He Stands When Compared With Unscrupulous Competitors Who Have No Conscience And Will Do Right Only Under Fear Of Punishment.

It Is Impossible To Win The Great Prizes Of Life Without Running Risks, And The Greatest Of All Prizes Are Those Connected With The Home.

The Only Trouble With The Movement For The Preservation Of Our Forests Is That It Has Not Gone Nearly Far Enough, And Was Not Begun Soon Enough.

Avoid The Base Hypocrisy Of Condemning In One Man What You Pass Over In Silence When Committed By Another.

There Is Nothing More Practical Than The Preservation Of Beauty, Than The Preservation Of Anything That Appeals To The Higher Emotions Of Mankind

Patriotism Means To Stand By The Country. It Does Not Mean To Stand By The President.

I Like To See Quentin (roosevelt) Practicing Baseball. It Gives Me Hope That One Of My Boys Will Not Take After His Father In This Respect, And Will Prove Able To Play The National Game.

All For Each, And Each For All, Is A Good Motto; But Only On Condition That Each Works With Might And Main To So Maintain Himself As Not To Be A Burden To Others.

The Man Of Great Wealth Owes A Peculiar Obligation To The State Because He Derives Special Advantages From The Mere Existence Of Government.

Do Nothing To Mar Its Grandeur ... Keep It For Your Children, Your Children's Children, And All Who Come After You, As The One Great Sight Which Every American Should See.

No Other President Ever Enjoyed The Presidency As I Did.

Freedom Means The Supremacy Of Human Rights Everywhere.

Here Is Your Country. Cherish These Natural Wonders, Cherish The Natural Resources, Cherish The History And Romance As A Sacred Heritage, For Your Children And Your Children's Children. Do Not Let Selfish Men Or Greedy Interests Skin Your Country Of Its Beauty, Its Riches Or Its Romance.

The Great Virtue Of My Radicalism Lies In The Fact That I Am Perfectly Ready, If Necessary, To Be Radical On The Conservative Side.

I Shall Ask You To Be As Quiet As Possible. I Don’t Know Whether You Fully Understand That I Have Just Been Shot — But It Takes More Than That To Kill A Bull Moose.

It Behooves Every Man To Remember That The Work Of The Critic Is Of Altogether Secondary Importance, And That, In The End, Progress Is Accomplished By The Man Who Does Things.

In A Civilized And Cultivated Country, Wild Animals Only Continue To Exist At All When Preserved By Sportsmen.

If We Are To Be Really Great People, We Must Strive In Good Faith To Play A Great Part In The World. We Cannot Avoid Meeting Great Issues. All That We Can Determine For Ourselves Is Whether We Shall Meet Them Well Or Ill.

I Am A Part Of Everything That I Have Read.

A Churchless Community, A Community Where Men Have Abandoned And Scoffed At Or Ignored Their Religious Needs, Is A Community On The Rapid Downgrade.

It Is Not What We Have That Will Make Us A Great Nation; It Is The Way In Which We Use It.

Use It Or Lose It

I Hate A Man Who Skins The Land.

We Want The Active And Zealous Help Of Every Man Far-sighted Enough To Realize The Importance From The Standpoint Of The Nation's Welfare In The Future Of Preserving The Forests.

A People Without Children Would Face A Hopeless Future; A Country Without Trees Is Almost As Helpless.

The Immigrant Must Not Be Allowed To Drift Or To Be Put At The Mercy Of The Exploiter. Our Object Is Not To Imitate One Of The Older Racial Types, But To Maintain A New American Type And Then To Secure Loyalty To This Type. We Cannot Secure Such Loyalty Unless We Make This A Country Where Men Shall Feel That They Have Justice And Also Where They Shall Feel That They Are Required To Perform The Duties Imposed Upon Them.

Certain Rich Men, Whose Lives Are Evil And Corrupt, Are The Representatives Of Predatory Wealth Accumulated By All Forms Of Inequity, From The Oppression Of Wage Workers To Unfair Methods Of Crushing Out Competition.

We Of An Older Generation Can Get Along With What We Have, Though With Growing Hardship; But In Your Full Manhood And Womanhood You Will Want What Nature Once So Bountifully Supplied And Man So Thoughtlessly Destroyed; And Because Of That Want You Will Reproach Us, Not For What We Have Used, But For What We Have Wasted...so Any Nation Which In Its Youth Lives Only For The Day, Reaps Without Sowing, And Consumes Without Husbanding, Must Expect The Penalty Of The Prodigal Whose Labor Could With Difficulty Find Him The Bare Means Of Life.

What Counts In A Man Or In A Nation Is Not What The Man Or The Nation Can Do, But What He Or It Actually Does.

We Are Face To Face With Our Destiny And We Must Meet It With A High And Resolute Courage.

Short-sighted Men Who In Their Greed And Selfishness Will, If Permitted, Rob Our Country Of Half Its Charm By Their Reckless Extermination Of All Useful And Beautiful Wild Things.

The Worst Of All Fears Is The Fear Of Living

The Chase Is Among The Best Of All National Pastimes; It Cultivates That Vigorous Manliness For The Lack Of Which In A Nation, As In An Individual, The Possession Of No Other Qualities Can Possibly Atone.

It Is Necessary For The Welfare Of The Nation That Men's Lives Be Based On The Principles Of The Bible. No Man, Educated Or Uneducated, Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible.

We Have Room In This Country For But One Flag, The Stars And Stripes!

The White House Is A Bully Pulpit.

All Privileges Based On Wealth, And All Emnity To Honest Men Merely Because They Are Wealthy, Are Un-american.

If A Man Does Not Have An Ideal And Try To Live Up To It, Then He Becomes A Mean, Base And Sordid Creature, No Matter How Successful.

Life Is As If You Were Traveling A Ridge Crest. You Have The Gulf Of Inefficiency On One Side And The Gulf Of Wickedness On The Other, And It Helps Not To Have Avoided One Gulf If You Fall Into The Other.

War Is Not Merely Justifiable, But Imperative Upon Honorable Men, Upon An Honorable Nation, Where Peace Can Only Be Obtained By The Sacrifice Of Conscientious Conviction Or Of National Welfare.

Aggressive Fighting For The Right Is The Noblest Sport The World Affords.

We Cannot Afford Merely To Sit Down And Deplore The Evils Of City Life As Inevitable, When Cities Are Constantly Growing, Both Absolutely And Relatively. We Must Set Ourselves Vigorously About The Task Of Improving Them; And This Task Is Now Well Begun.

There Can Be No Effective Control Of Corporations While Their Political Activity Remains.

The Man Who Holds That Every Human Right Is Secondary To His Profit Must Now Give Way To The Advocate Of Human Welfare.

The Most Ultimately Righteous Of All Wars Is A War With Savages, Though It Is Apt To Be Also The Most Terrible And Inhuman. The Rude, Fierce Settler Who Drives The Savage From The Land Lays All Civilized Mankind Under A Debt To Him. ...[i]t Is Of Incalculable Importance That America, Australia, And Siberia Should Pass Out Of The Hands Of Their Red, Black, And Yellow Aboriginal Owners, And Become The Heritage Of The Dominant World Races.

Our Duty To The Whole, Including The Unborn Generations, Bids Us To Restrain An Unprincipled Present-day Minority From Wasting The Heritage Of These Unborn Generations. The Movement For The Conservation Of Wildlife And The Larger Movement For The Conservation Of All Our Natural Resources Are Essentially Democratic In Spirit, Purpose, And Method.

I Believe That The Officers, And, Especially, The Directors, Of Corporations Should Be Held Personally Responsible When Any Corporation Breaks The Law.

'liar' Is Just As Ugly A Word As 'thief,' Because It Implies The Presence Of Just As Ugly A Sin In One Case As In The Other. If A Man Lies Under Oath Or Procures The Lie Of Another Under Oath, If He Perjures Himself Or Suborns Perjury, He Is Guilty Under The Statute Law.

To Exist As A Nation, To Prosper As A State, And To Live As A People, We Must Have Trees.

The One Thing I Want To Leave My Children Is An Honorable Name.

We Americans Have Many Grave Problems To Solve, Many Threatening Evils To Fight, And Many Deeds To Do, If, As We Hope And Believe, We Have The Wisdom, The Strength, And The Courage And The Virtue To Do Them. But We Must Face Facts As They Are. We Must Neither Surrender Ourselves To A Foolish Optimism, Nor Succumb To A Timid And Ignoble Pessimism.

Let Us Rather Run The Risk Of Wearing Out Than Rusting Out.

Bodily Vigor Is Good, And Vigor Of Intellect Is Even Better, But Far Above Is Character.

Courtesy Is As Much A Mark Of A Gentleman As Courage.

We Here In America, Hold In Our Hands The Hope Of The World, The Fate Of The Coming Years; And Shame And Disgrace Will Be Ours If In Our Eyes The Light Of High Resolve Is Dimmed, If We Trail In The Dust The Golden Hopes Of Men.

It Either Is Or Ought To Be Evident To Everyone That Business Has To Prosper Before Anyone Can Get Any Benefit From It.

Our Chief Usefulness To Humanity Rests On Our Combining Power With High Purpose. Power Undirected By High Purpose Spells Calamity, And High Purpose By Itself Is Utterly Useless If The Power To Put It Into Effect Is Lacking.

Our Words Must Be Judged By Our Deeds; And In Striving For A Lofty Ideal We Must Use Practical Methods; And If We Cannot Attain All At One Leap, We Must Advance Towards It Step By Step, Reasonably Content So Long As We Do Actually Make Some Progress In The Right Direction.

Don't Limit Your Challenges - Challenge Your Limits. Don't Spread Patriotism Too Thin.

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

I Am Far From Underestimating The Importance Of Dividends, But I Rank Dividends Below Human Character.

The Need For Collecting Large Campaign Funds Would Vanish If Congress Provided An Appropriation For The Proper And Legitimate Expenses Of Each Of The Great National Parties, An Appropriation Ample Enough To Meet The Necessity For Thorough Organization And Machinery, Which Requires A Large Expenditure Of Money. Then The Stipulation Should Be Made That No Party Receiving Campaign Funds From The Treasury Should Accept More Than A Fixed Amount From Any Individual Subscriber Or Donor; And The Necessary Publicity For Receipts And Expenditures Could Without Difficulty Be Provided.

In Speaking To You Men Of The Greatest City Of The West, Men Of The State Which Gave To The Country Lincoln And Grant, Men Who Preeminently And Distinctly Embody All That Is Most American In The American Character, I Wish To Preach Not The Doctrine Of Ignoble Ease, But The Doctrine Of The Strenuous Life.

An Airedale Can Do Anything Any Other Dog Can Do And Then Whip The Other Dog If He Has To.

The Forces That Tend For Evil Are Great And Terrible, But The Forces Of Truth And Love And Courage And Honesty And Generosity And Sympathy Are Also Stronger Than Ever Before.

Weasel Words From Mollycoddles Will Never Do When The Day Demands Prophetic Clarity From Greathearts. Manly Men Must Emerge For This Hour Of Trial.

Our Government, National And State, Must Be Freed From The Sinister Influence Or Control Of Special Interests. Exactly As The Special Interests Of Cotton And Slavery Threatened Our Political Integrity Before The Civil War, So Now The Great Special Business Interests Too Often Control And Corrupt The Men And Methods Of Government For Their Own Profit. We Must Drive The Special Interests Out Of Politics.

To Waste, To Destroy Our Natural Resources, To Skin And Exhaust The Land Instead Of Using It So As To Increase Its Usefulness, Will Result In Undermining In The Days Of Our Children The Very Prosperity Which We Ought By Right To Hand Down To Them Amplified And Developed.

No Man Is Justified In Doing Evil On The Ground Of Expedience.

Gradually The True Mason Gains Experience In Using These Working Tools And Can Observe Subtler And Subtler Indications Of Personal Flaws.

Every Thinking Man, When He Thinks, Realizes That The Teachings Of The Bible Are So Interwoven And Intertwined With Our Whole Civic And Social Life That It Would Be Literally, I Do Not Mean Figuratively, But Literally Impossible For Us To Figure What The Loss Would Be If These Teachings Were Removed. We Would Lose All The Standards By Which We Now Judge Both Public And Private Morals; All The Standards Toward Which We, With More Or Less Resolution, Strive To Raise Ourselves.

Hardness Of Heart Is A Dreadful Quality, But It Is Doubtful Whether In The Long Run It Works More Damage Than Softness Of Head.

To Hell With The Constitution When People Want Coal!

He Who Makes No Mistakes Makes No Progress.

I Am Simply Unable To Understand The Value Placed By So Many People Upon Great Wealth.

To Announce There Must Be No Criticism Of The President Or That We Are To Stand With The President, Right Or Wrong, Is Not Only Unpatriotic And Servile, But Is Morally Treasonable To The American Public.

I Do Not Care A Rap As To Who Gets Credit For The Work, Provided The Work Is Done.

I Took The Canal Zone And Let Congress Debate; And While The Debate Goes On, The Canal Does Also.

I Don't Pity Any Man Who Does Hard Work Worth Doing. I Admire Him. I Pity The Creature Who Does Not Work, At Whichever End Of The Social Scale He May Regard Himself As Being.

Americanism Means The Virtues Of Courage, Honor, Justice, Truth, Sincerity, And Hardihood - The Virtues That Made America.

Criticism Is Necessary And Useful; It Is Often Indispensable; But It Can Never Take The Place Of Action, Or Be Even A Poor Substitute For It. The Function Of The Mere Critic Is Of Very Subordinate Usefulness. It Is The Doer Of Deeds Who Actually Counts In The Battle For Life, And Not The Man Who Looks On And Says How The Fight Ought To Be Fought, Without Himself Sharing The Stress And The Danger.

It Is No Use To Preach To [children] If You Do Not Act Decently Yourself.

Leave It As It Is. The Ages Have Been At Work On It And Man Can Only Mar It.

The Lunatic Fringe In All Reform Movements.

It [the Civil War] Was A Heroic Struggle; And, As Is Inevitable With All Such Struggles, It Had Also A Dark And Terrible Side. Very Much Was Done Of Good, And Much Also Of Evil; And, As Was Inevitable In Such A Period Of Revolution, Often The Same Man Did Both Good And Evil. For Our Great Good Fortune As A Nation, We, The People Of The United States As A Whole, Can Now Afford To Forget The Evil, Or, At Least, To Remember It Without Bitterness, And To Fix Our Eyes With Pride Only On The Good That Was Accomplished.

I Was A Reasonably Good Student In College ... My Chief Interests Were Scientific. When I Entered College, I Was Devoted To Out-of-doors Natural History, And My Ambition Was To Be A Scientific Man Of The Audubon, Or Wilson, Or Baird, Or Coues Type-a Man Like Hart Merriam, Or Frank Chapman, Or Hornaday, To-day.

One Of The Fundamental Necessities In A Representative Government Such As Ours Is To Make Certain That The Men To Whom The People Delegate Their Power Shall Serve The People By Whom They Are Elected, And Not The Special Interests. I Believe That Every National Officer, Elected Or Appointed, Should Be Forbidden To Perform Any Service Or Receive Any Compensation, Directly Or Indirectly, From Interstate Corporations; And A Similar Provision Could Not Fail To Be Useful Within The States.

The Public Must Retain Control Of The Great Waterways. It Is Essential That Any Permit To Obstruct Them For Reasons And On Conditions That Seem Good At The Moment Should Be Subject To Revision When Changed Conditions Demand.

A Good Navy Is Not A Provocation To War. It Is The Surest Guaranty Of Peace.

For Unflagging Interest And Enjoyment, A Household Of Children, If Things Go Reasonably Well, Certainly All Other Forms Of Success And Achievement Lose Their Importance By Comparison.

We Are Consuming Our Forests Three Times Faster Than They Are Being Reproduced. Some Of The Richest Timber Lands Of This Continent Have Already Been Destroyed, And Not Replaced, And Other Vast Areas Are On The Verge Of Destruction. Yet Forests, Unlike Mines, Can Be So Handled As To Yield The Best Results Of Use, Without Exhaustion, Just Like Grain Fields.

A Man Who Is Good Enough To Shed His Blood For The Country Is Good Enough To Be Given A Square Deal Afterwards.

In Name We Had The Declaration Of Independence In 1776; But We Gave The Lie By Our Acts To The Words Of The Declaration Of Independence Until 1865; And Words Count For Nothing Except In So Far As They Represent Acts.

Let The Watchwords Of All Our People Be The Old Familiar Watchwords Of Honesty, Decency, Fair-dealing, And Commonsense."... "we Must Treat Each Man On His Worth And Merits As A Man. We Must See That Each Is Given A Square Deal, Because He Is Entitled To No More And Should Receive No Less.""the Welfare Of Each Of Us Is Dependent Fundamentally Upon The Welfare Of All Of Us.

When They Call The Roll In The Senate, The Senators Do Not Know Whether To Answer 'present' Or 'not Guilty.'

If An American Is To Amount To Anything He Must Rely Upon Himself, And Not Upon The State; He Must Take Pride In His Own Work, Instead Of Sitting Idle To Envy The Luck Of Others. He Must Face Life With Resolute Courage, Win Victory If He Can, And Accept Defeat If He Must, Without Seeking To Place On His Fellow Man A Responsibility Which Is Not Theirs.

Knowing What's Right Doesn't Mean Much Unless You Do What's Right.

Under Government Ownership Corruption Can Flourish Just As Rankly As Under Private Ownership.

Alike For The Nation And The Individual, The One Indispensable Requisite Is Character.

The Great Corporations Which We Have Grown To Speak Of Rather Loosely As Trusts Are The Creatures Of The State, And The State Not Only Has The Right To Control Them, But It Is Duty Bound To Control Them Wherever The Need Of Such Control Is Shown.

Give The Brethren A Chance To Do Something, Anything, No Matter How Small Or Unimportant. A Brother Convinced That He Is Helpful Is Enthusiastic.

A True Forest Is Not Merely A Storehouse Full Of Wood, But, As It Were, A Factory Of Wood.

I Regard The Masonic Institution As One Of The Means Ordained By The Supreme Architect To Enable Mankind To Work Out The Problem Of Destiny; To Fight Against, And Overcome, The Weaknesses And Imperfections Of His Nature, And At Last To Attain To That True Life Of Which Death Is The Herald And The Grave The Portal.

The Wildlife And Its Habitat Cannot Speak, So We Must And We Will.

The Great Body Of Our Citizens Shoot Less As Times Goes On. We Should Encourage Rifle Practice Among Schoolboys, And Indeed Among All Classes, As Well As In The Military Services By Every Means In Our Power. Thus, And Not Otherwise, May We Be Able To Assist In Preserving Peace In The World... The First Step – In The Direction Of Preparation To Avert War If Possible, And To Be Fit For War If It Should Come – Is To Teach Men To Shoot!

It Is, Of Course, The Merest Truism To Say A Party Is Of Use Only So Far As It Serves The Nation.

We Demand That Big Business Give The People A Square Deal; In Return We Must Insist That When Any One Engaged In Big Business Honestly Endeavors To Do Right He Shall Himself Be Given A Square Deal.

What I Am To Be, I Am Becoming.

Don't Hit At All If It Is Honorably Possible To Avoid Hitting; But Never Hit Soft.

Thorough Knowledge

I Believe In Corporations. They Are Indispensable Instruments Of Our Modern Civilization. But I Believe They Should Be So Regulated That They Shall Act For The Interests Of The Community As A Whole.

There Can Be No Life Without Change, And To Be Afraid Of What Is Different Or Unfamiliar Is To Be Afraid Of Life.

We Must Diligently Strive To Make Our Young Men Decent, God-fearing, Law-abiding, Honor-loving, Justice-doing And Also Fearless And Strong.

I Have Always Said I Would Not Have Been President Had It Not Been For My Experience In North Dakota.

Now And Then We Hear The Wilder Voices Of The Wilderness, From Animals That In The Hours Of Darkness Do Not Fear The Neighborhood Of Man: The Coyotes Wail Like Dismal Ventriloquists, Or The Silence May Be Broken By The Snorting And Stamping Of A Deer.

Courage Is Not Having The Strength To Go On, It Is Going On When You Don't Have The Strength. Industry And Determination Can Do Anything That Genius And Advantage Can Do And Many Things That They Cannot.

The Cubists Are Entitled To The Serious Attention Of All Who Find Enjoyment In The Colored Puzzle Pictures Of The Sunday Newspapers.

We Cannot Afford To Differ On The Question Of Honesty If We Expect Our Republic Permanently To Endure. Honesty Is Not So Much A Credit As An Absolute Prerequisite To Efficient Service To The Public. Unless A Man Is Honest, We Have No Right To Keep Him In Public Life; It Matters Not How Brilliant His Capacity.

For Those Who Fight For It Life Has A Flavor The Sheltered Will Never Know

No Nation Deserves To Exist If It Permits Itself To Lose The Stern And Virile Virtues; And This Without Regard To Whether The Loss Is Due To The Growth Of A Heartless And All-absorbing Commercialism, To Prolonged Indulgence In Luxury And Soft, Effortless Ease, Or To The Deification Of A Warped And Twisted Sentimentality.

Show Me A Man Who Makes No Mistakes, And I Will Show You A Man Who Doesn't Do Things.

People Ask The Difference Between A Leader And A Boss. The Leader Leads, And The Boss Drives.

There Is But One Answer To Terrorism And It Is Best Delivered With A Winchester Rifle.

No Man Should Receive A Dollar Unless That Dollar Has Been Fairly Earned.

Progressive Taxation

To Divide Along The Lines Of Section Or Caste Or Creed Is Un-american.

I Have Often Been Afraid, But I Would Not Give In To It. I Made Myself Act As Though I Was Not Afraid And Gradually My Fear Disappeared.

There Is No Good Reason Why We Should Fear The Future, But There Is Every Reason Why We Should Face It Seriously, Neither Hiding From Ourselves The Gravity Of The Problems Before Us Nor Fearing To Approach These Problems With The Unbending, Unflinching Purpose To Solve Them Aright.

The Man Who Really Counts In The World Is The Doer, Not The Mere Critic -- The Man Who Actually Does The Work, Even If Roughly And Imperfectly, Not The Man Who Only Talks Or Writes About How It Ought To Be Done.

More And More, As It Becomes Necessary To Preserve The Game, Let Us Hope That The Camera Will Largely Supplant The Rifle.

Each Child Represents Either A Potential Addition To The Protective Capacity And Enlightened Citizenship Of The Nation Or, If Allowed To Suffer From Neglect, A Potential Addition To The Destructive Forces Of A Community. . . . The Interests Of The Nation Are Involved In The Welfare Of This Array Of Children No Less Than In Our Great Material Affairs.

Look Toward The Stars But Keep Your Feet Firmly On The Ground.

There Are Two Things That I Want You To Make Up Your Minds To: First, That You Are Going To Have A Good Time As Long As You Live - I Have No Use For The Sour-faced Man - And Next, That You Are Going To Do Something Worthwhile, That You Are Going To Work Hard And Do The Things You Set Out To Do.

The Object Of Government Is The Welfare Of The People.

Comparison With Something That Is Better Is The Thief Of Joy. Comparison With Something That Is Worse Is A Joy - Full Of Relief And Gratitude! You Cannot Always Choose What Happens To You Or Your Circumstances But You Can Always Choose Your Attitude By What You Choose To Compare Your Experiences Or Circumstances To And Therefore How You Will Feel!! We Can Make Any Experience Either A Heaven Or A Hell By What We Compare It To. Our Emotions Are 'an Inside Job!'

The Woman Has The Right To Be Emancipated From The Position Of A Drudge Or A Toy. She Is Entitled To A Full Equality In Rights With Man.

We Face The Future With Our Past And Our Present As Guarantors Of Our Promises; And We Are Content To Stand Or To Fall By The Record Which We Have Made And Are Making.

Conservation And Rural-life Policies Are Really Two Sides Of The Same Policy; And Down At The Bottom This Policy Rests Upon The Fundamental Law That Neither Man Nor Nation Can Prosper Unless, In Dealing With The Present, Thought Is Steadily Given For The Future.

The President Is That Invisible Force That Makes A School Of Fish Suddenly Change Direction, So That Everyone 'ohhs' And 'ahhs' At The Glimmering Mass And Only Later Wonders What Makes Them Move In That Way. I Read Somewhere-_harper's_, I'm Fairly Certain-that The Fish Are Only Avoiding Pockets Of Extra Cold Water.

No Man Can Do Both Effective And Decent Work In Public Life Unless He Is A Practical Politician On The One Hand, And A Sturdy Believer In Sunday-school Politics On The Other. He Must Always Strive Manfully For The Best, And Yet, Like Abraham Lincoln, Must Often Resign Himself To Accept The Best Possible.

The Stream Will Not Permanently Rise Higher Than The Main Source; And The Main Source Of National Power And National Greatness Is Found In The Average Citizenship Of The Nation. Therefore It Behooves Us To Do Our Best To See That The Standard Of The Average Citizen Is Kept High; And The Average Cannot Be Kept High Unless The Standard Of The Leaders Is Very Much Higher.

There Comes A Time In The Life Of A Nation, As In The Life Of An Individual, When It Must Face Great Responsibilities, Whether It Will Or No. We Have Now Reached That Time. We Cannot Avoid Facing The Fact That We Occupy A New Place Among The People Of The World.

A Good Shot Must Necessarily Be A Good Man Since The Essence Of Good Marksmanship Is Self-control And Self-control Is The Essential Quality Of A Good Man.

The Poorest Way To Face Life Is To Face It With A Sneer.

The Civilized People Of Today Look Back With Horror At Their Medieval Ancestors Who Wantonly Destroyed Great Works Of Art Or Sat Slothfully By While They Destroyed. We Have Passed This Stage.... Here In The U.s. We Turn Our Rivers And Streams Into Sewers And Dumping Grounds, We Pollute The Air, We Destroy Our Forests And Exterminate Fishes, Birds And Mammals - Not To Speak Of Vulgarizing Charming Landscapes With Hideous Advertisements. But At Best It Looks As If Our People Were Awakening.

No Man Who Is Not Willing To Bear Arms And To Fight For His Rights Can Give A Good Reason Why He Should Be Entitled To The Privilege Of Living In A Free Community.

My Power Vanishes Into Thin Air The Instant That My Fellow Citizens, Who Are Straight And Honest, Cease To Believe That I Represent Them And Fight For What Is Straight And Honest. That Is All The Strength That I Have.

Kings And Such Are Just As Funny As Politicians.

Patriotism Means To Stand By The Country. It Does Not Mean To Stand By The President Or Any Other Public Official, Save Exactly To The Degree In Which He Himself Stands By The Country. It Is Patriotic To Support Him Insofar As He Efficiently Serves The Country. It Is Unpatriotic Not To Oppose Him To The Exact Extent That By Inefficiency Or Otherwise He Fails In His Duty To Stand By The Country. In Either Event, It Is Unpatriotic Not To Tell The Truth, Whether About The President Or Anyone Else.

No, I'm Not A Good Shot, But I Shoot Often.

You, The Sons Of The Pioneers, If You Are True To Your Ancestry, Must Make Your Lives As Worthy As They Made Theirs. They Sought For True Success, And Therefore They Did Not Seek Ease. They Knew That Success Comes Only To Those Who Lead The Life Of Endeavor

Progress Has Brought Us Both Unbounded Opportunities And Unbridled Difficulties. Thus, The Measure Of Our Civilization Will Not Be That We Have Done Much, But What We Have Done With That Much. I Believe That The Next Half Century Will Determine If We Will Advance The Cause Of Christian Civilization Or Revert To The Horrors Of Brutal Paganism. The Thought Of Modern Industry In The Hands Of Christian Charity Is A Dream Worth Dreaming. The Thought Of Industry In The Hands Of Paganism Is A Nightmare Beyond Imagining. The Choice Between The Two Is Upon Us.

All The Resources We Need Are In The Mind.

Nowadays The Field Naturalist-who Is Usually At All Points Superior To The Mere Closet Naturalist-follows A Profession As Full Of Hazard And Interest As That Of The Explorer Or Of The Big-game Hunter In The Remote Wilderness.

I Do Not In The Least Object To A Sport Because It Is Rough.

Ours Is A Government Of Liberty By, Through, And Under The Law. A Great Democracy Must Be Progressive Or It Will Soon Cease To Be Great Or A Democracy.

Much Of The Usefulness Of Any Career Must Lie In The Impress That It Makes Upon, And The Lessons That It Teaches To, The Generations That Come After.

What I Have Advocated Is Not Wild Radicalism. It Is The Highest And Wisest Kind Of Conservatism.

If, In Any Individual, University Training Produces A Taste For Refined Idleness, A Distaste For Sustained Effort, A Barren Intellectual Arrogance, Or A Sense Of Superfluous Aloofness From The World Of Real Men Who Do The World's Real Work, Then It Has Harmed That Individual.

Intellectual Arrogance

We Wish Peace, But We Wish The Peace Of Justice, The Peace Of Righteousness. We Wish It Because We Think It Is Right And Not Because We Are Afraid.

I Feel Most Emphatically That We Should Not Turn Into Shingles A Tree Which Was Old When The First Egyptian Conqueror Penetrated To The Valley Of The Euphrates.

I Put Myself In The Way Of Things Happening, And They Happened.

The Greatest Historian Should Also Be A Great Moralist. It Is No Proof Of Impartiality To Treat Wickedness And Goodness On The Same Level.

There Can Be No Effective Control Of Corporations While Their Political Activity Remains. To Put An End To It Will Be Neither A Short Nor An Easy Task, But It Can Be Done ... Corporate Expenditures For Political Purposes, And Especially Such Expenditures By Public-service Corporations, Have Supplied One Of The Principal Sources Of Corruption In Our Political Affairs.

90% Of The Work In This Country Is Done By People Who Don't Feel Good".

Optimism Is A Good Characteristic, But If Carried To An Excess, It Becomes Foolishness. We Are Prone To Speak Of The Resources Of This Country As Inexhaustible; This Is Not So.

In The History Of Mankind Many Republics Have Risen, Have Flourished For A Less Or Greater Time, And Then Have Fallen Because Their Citizens Lost The Power Of Governing Themselves And Thereby Of Governing Their State; And In No Way Has This Loss Of Power Been So Often And So Clearly Shown As In The Tendency To Turn The Government Into A Government Primarily For The Benefit Of One Class Instead Of A Government For The Benefit Of The People As A Whole.

Freedom From Effort In The Present Merely Means That There Has Been Effort Stored Up In The Past.

I Would Rather Go Out Of Politics Having The Feeling That I Had Done What Was Right Than Stay In With The Approval Of All Men, Knowing In My Heart That I Have Acted As I Ought Not To.

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Robin G. Collingwood

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