Background Image

...

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts; Not The Man Who Points Out How The Strong Man Stumbles, Or Where The Doer Of Deeds Could Have Done Them Better. The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena, Whose Face Is Marred By Dust And Sweat And Blood; Who Strives Valiantly; . . . Who At Best Knows In The End The Triumph Of High Achievement, And Who At Worst, If He Fails, At Least Fails While Daring Greatly.

-Theodore Roosevelt

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

It Is Not The

Theodore Roosevelt

...

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts; Not The Man Who Points Out How The Strong Man Stumbles, Or Where The Doer Of Deeds Could Have Done Them Better. The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena, Whose Face Is Marred By Dust And Sweat And Blood; Who Strives Valiantly; . . . Who At Best Knows In The End The Triumph Of High Achievement, And Who At Worst, If He Fails, At Least Fails While Daring Greatly.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Theodore Roosevelt

I Stand For The Square Deal. I Mean Not Merely That I Stand For Fair Play Under The Present Rules Of The Game, But That I Stand For Having Those Rules Changed So As To Work For A More Substantial Equality Of Opportunity And Of Reward For Equally Good Service.

The Men Of Wealth Who Today Are Trying To Prevent The Regulation And Control Of Their Business In The Interest Of The Public By The Proper Government Authorities Will Not Succeed, In My Judgment, In Checking The Progress Of The Movement. But If They Did Succeed They Would Find That They Had Sown The Wind And Would Surely Reap The Whirlwind, For They Would Ultimately Provoke The Violent Excesses Which Accompany A Reform Coming By Convulsion Instead Of By Steady And Natural Growth.

In Popular Government Results Worth While Can Only Be Achieved By Men Who Combine Worthy Ideals With Practical Good Sense.

Keep Your Eyes On The Stars, And Your Feet On The Ground.

Because We Are Unqualifiedly And Without Reservation Against Any System Of Denominational Schools, Maintained By The Adherents Of Any Creed With The Help Of State Aid, Therefore, We As Strenuously Insist That The Public Schools Shall Be Free From Sectarian Influences, And Above All, Free From Any Attitude Of Hostility To The Adherents Of Any Particular Creed.

A Nation That Still Needs To Distinguish Between Stealing An Election, And Stealing A New Pair Of Shoes, Is Not Completely Civilized Yet.

Much Has Been Given Us, And Much Will Rightfully Be Expected From Us. We Have Duties To Others And Duties To Ourselves; And We Can Shirk Neither. We Have Become A Great Nation, Forced By The Fact Of Its Greatness Into Relations With Other Nations Of The Earth, And We Must Behave As Beseems A People With Such Responsibilities.

The Lack Of Power To Take Joy In Outdoor Nature Is As Real A Misfortune As The Lack Of Power To Take Joy In Books

No People Ever Yet Benefited By Riches If Their Prosperity Corrupted Their Virtue.

Character, In The Long Run, Is The Decisive Factor In The Life Of An Individual And Of Nations Alike.

I Ask Of Each Mason, Of Each Member, Of Each Brother, That He Shall Remember Ever That There Is Upon Him A Peculiar Obligation To Show Himself In Every Respect A Good Citizen; For After All, The Way He Can Best Do His Duty By The Ancient Order To Which He Belongs Is By Reflecting Credit Upon That Order By Way In Which He Performs His Duty As A Citizen Of The United States.

We Shall Make Mistakes; And If We Let These Mistakes Frighten Us From Our Work We Shall Show Ourselves Weaklings.

Making Mistakes

Never Trust A Man Who Says He Is Only A Little Crooked, And That The Crookedness Is Exercised In Your Interest.

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.

Much Has Been Given Us, And Much Will Rightfully Be Expected From Us. We Have Duties To Others And Duties To Ourselves; And We Can Shrink Neither.

To Hell With The Constitution When People Want Coal!

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

It Tires Me To Talk To Rich Men. You Expect A Man Of Millions, The Head Of A Great Industry, To Be A Man Worthhearing; But As A Rule They Don't Know Anything Outside Their Own Business.

No People On Earth Have More Cause To Be Thankful Than Ours, And This Is Said Reverently, In No Spirit Of Boastfulness In Our Own Strength, But With The Gratitude To The Giver Of Good Who Has Blessed Us.

Then Get Busy And Find Out How To Do It.

Job Opportunities

The Great Lawyer Who Employs His Talent And His Learning In The Highly Emunerative Task Of Enabling A Very Wealthy Client To Override Or Circumvent The Law Is Doing All That In Him Lies To Encourage The Growth In The Country Of A Spirit Of Dumb Anger Against All Laws And Of Disbelief In Their Efficacy.

I Am A Strong Individualist By Personal Habit, Inheritance, And Conviction; But It Is A Mere Matter Of Common Sense To Recognize That The State, The Community, The Citizens Acting Together, Can Do A Number Of Things Better Than If They Were Left To Individual Action.

Americanism Is A Question Of Principle, Of Idealism, Of Character. It Is Not A Matter Of Birthplace, Or Creed, Or Line Of Descent.

When We Control Business In The Public Interest We Are Also Bound To Encourage It In The Public Interest Or It Will Be A Bad Thing For Everybody And Worst Of All For Those On Whose Behalf The Control Is Nominally Exercised.

Don't Hit At All If You Can Help It; Don't Hit A Man If You Can Possibly Avoid It; But If You Do Hit Him, Put Him To Sleep.

In Life, As In Football, The Principle To Follow Is To Hit The Line Hard.

We Need The Iron Qualities That Go With True Manhood. We Need The Positive Virtues Of Resolution, Of Courage, Of Indomitable Will, Of Power To Do Without Shrinking The Rough Work That Must Always Be Done.

Is America A Weakling, To Shrink From The Work Of The Great World Powers? No! The Young Giant Of The West Stands On A Continent And Clasps The Crest Of An Ocean In Either Hand. Our Nation, Glorious In Youth And Strength, Looks Into The Future With Eager Eyes And Rejoices As A Strong Man To Run A Race.

No Man Is Worth His Salt Who Is Not Ready At All Times To Risk His Well-being, To Risk His Body, To Risk His Life, In A Great Cause.

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.

Far Better Is It To Dare Mighty Things, To Win Glorious Triumphs, Even Though Checkered By Failure... Than To Rank With Those Poor Spirits Who Neither Enjoy Nor Suffer Much, Because They Live In A Gray Twilight That Knows Not Victory Nor Defeat.

A Vote Is Like A Rifle; Its Usefulness Depends Upon The Character Of The User.

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.

Behind The Ostensible Government Sits Enthroned An Invisible Government Owing No Allegiance And Acknowledging No Responsibility To The People.

Mckinley Has No More Backbone Than A Chocolate Eclair.

The Mass Of The American People Are Most Emphatically Not In The Deplorable Condition Of Which You Speak.

Women Should Have Free Access To Every Field Of Labor Which They Care To Enter, And When Their Work Is As Valuable As That Of A Man It Should Be Paid As Highly.

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 Establishment Of The National Park Service Is Justified By Considerations Of Good Administration, Of The Value Of Natural Beauty As A National Asset, And Of The Effectiveness Of Outdoor Life And Recreation In The Production Of Good Citizenship.

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.

With A Great Moral Issue Involved, Neutrality Does Not Serve Righteousness; For To Be Neutral Between Right And Wrong Is To Serve Wrong.

To Announce That There Must Be No Criticism Of The President... Is Morally Treasonable To The American Public.

Freedom Of Speech

We Can Have No '50-50' Allegiance In This Country. Either A Man Is An American And Nothing Else, Or He Is Not An American At All.

The Credit Belongs To Those Who Are Actually In The Arena, Who Strive Valiantly; Who Know The Great Enthusiasums, The Great Devotions, And Spend Themselves In A Worthy Cause; Who At Best Know The Triumph Of High Achievement; And Who, At Worst, If They Fail, Fail While Daring Greatly, So That Their Place Shall Never Be With Those Cold And Timid Souls Who Know Neither Victory Nor Defeat.

Our Flag Is A Proud Flag, And It Stands For Liberty And Civilization. Where It Has Once Floated, There Must Be No Return To Tyranny.

When I Say I Believe In A Square Deal I Do Not Mean To Give Every Man The Best Hand. If The Cards Do Not Come To Any Man, Or If They Do Come, And He Has Not Got The Power To Play Them, That Is His Affair. All I Mean Is That There Shall Be No Crookedness In The Dealing.

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.

Every Man Among Us Is More Fit To Meet The Duties And Responsibilities Of Citizenship Because Of The Perils Over Which, In The Past, The Nation Has Triumphed; Because Of The Blood And Sweat And Tears, The Labor And The Anguish, Through Which, In The Days That Have Gone, Our Forefathers Moved On To Triumph.

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.

The Farther One Gets Into The Wilderness, The Greater Is The Attraction Of Its Lonely Freedom.

Silent Strength Is The Quality Of All Good Men And Most Mummies.

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

Let Us Speak Courteously, Deal Fairly, And Keep Ourselves Armed And Ready.

Second Amendment

Conservation Of Our Resources Is The Fundamental Question Before This Nation, And That Our First And Greatest Task Is To Set Our House In Order And Begin To Live Within Our Means.

I Do. That Is Character!

I Want To See You Game, Boys, I Want To See You Brave And Manly, And I Also Want To See You Gentle And Tender.

There Is No Room In This Country For Hyphenated Americanism.

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

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.

And It Is Through Strife And The Readiness For Strife That A Man Or A Nation Must Win Greatness. So, Let The World Know That We Are Here And Willing To Pour Out Our Blood, Our Treasure, Our Tears. And That America Is Ready And If Need Be Desirous Of Battle

Never Throughout History Has A Man Who Lived A Life Of Ease Left A Name Worth Remembering.

The Weakling And The Coward Are Out Of Place In A Strong And Free Community. In A Republic Like Ours The Governing Class Is Composed Of The Strong Men Who Take The Trouble To Do The Work Of Government; And If You Are Too Timid Or Too Fastidious Or Too Careless To Do Your Part In This Work, Then You Forfeit Your Right To Be Considered One Of The Governing And You Become One Of The Governed Insteadone Of The Driven Cattle Of The Political Arena.

Unjust War Is To Be Abhorred; But Woe To The Nation That Does Not Make Ready To Hold Its Own In Time Of Need Against All Who Would Harm It! And Woe Thrice Over To The Nation In Which The Average Man Loses The Fighting Edge, Loses The Power To Serve As A Soldier If The Day Of Need Should Arise!

The Duties Are Even More Important Than The Rights; And In The Long Run I Think That The Reward Is Ampler And Greater For Duty Well Done, Than For The Insistence Upon Individual Rights.

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.

Profanity Is The Parlance Of The Fool. Why Curse When There Is Such A Magnificent Language With Which To Discourse?

It Is Difficult To Make Our Material Condition Better By The Best Law, But It Is Easy Enough To Ruin It By Bad Laws.

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

The One Being Abhorrent To The Powers Above The Earth And Under Them Is The Hyphenated American

On The Whole, We Think That The Greatest Victories Are Yet To Be Won, The Greatest Deeds Yet To Be Done, And That There Are Yet In Store For Our Peoples, And For The Causes That We Uphold, Grander Triumphs Than Have Ever Yet Been Scored. But Be This As It May, We Gladly Agree That The One Plain Duty Of Every Man Is To Face The Future As He Faces The Present, Regardless Of What It May Have In Store For Him, Turning Toward The Light As He Sees The Light, To Play His Part Manfully, As A Man Among Men.

Greatest Victory

Much Of The Discussion About Socialism And Individualism Is Entirely Pointless, Because Of Failure To Agree On Terminology.

A Thorough Knowledge Of The Bible Is Worth More Than A College Education.

Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy.

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

Make Preparations In Advance ... You Never Have Trouble If You Are Prepared For It.

The Labor Unions Shall Have A Square Deal, And The Corporations Shall Have A Square Deal, And In Addition, All Private Citizens Shall Have A Square Deal.

The Armenian Massacre Was The Greatest Crime Of The War.

Want More Advice Like This?

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

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.

With Self-discipline, All Things Are Possible

Formal Education

Obedience Of The Law Is Demanded; Not Asked As A Favor.

Don't Foul, Don't Flinch-hit The Line Hard.

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.

There Is Need Of A Sound Body, And Even More Need Of A Sound Mind. But Above Mind And Above Body Stands Character-the Sum Of Those Qualities Which We Mean When We Speak Of A Man's Force And Courage, Of His Good Faith And Sense Of Honor.

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.

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!'

A Typical Vice Of American Politics The Avoidance Of Saying Anything Real On Real Issues, And The Announcement Of Radical Policies With Much Sound And Fury, And At The Same Time With A Cautious Accompaniment Of Weasel Phrases Each Of Which Sucks The Meat Out Of The Preceding Statement.

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.

Where A Trust Becomes A Monopoly The State Has An Immediate Right To Interfere.

We Stand For A Living Wage. Wages Are Subnormal If They Fail To Provide A Living For Those Who Devote Their Time And Energy To Industrial Occupations. The Monetary Equivalent Of A Living Wage Varies According To Local Conditions, But Must Include Enough To Secure The Elements Of A Normal Standard Of Living-a Standard High Enough To Make Morality Possible, To Provide For Education And Recreation, To Care For Immature Members Of The Family, To Maintain The Family During Periods Of Sickness, And To Permit Of Reasonable Saving For Old Age.

We Stand At Armageddon And We Battle For The Lord.

In This Country We Have No Place For Hyphenated Americans.

Performance Should Be Made Square With Promise.

A Healthy-minded Boy Should Feel Hearty Contempt For The Coward And Even More Hearty Indignation For The Boy Who Bullies Girls Or Small Boys, Or Tortures Animals.

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

The Conservation Of Natural Resources Is The Fundamental Problem. Unless We Solve That Problem It Will Avail Us Little To Solve All Others.

The Weakling And The Coward Cannot Be Saved By Honesty Alone; But Without Honesty The Brave And Able Man Is Merely A Civic Wild Beast Who Should Be Hunted Down By Every Lover Of Righteousness. No Man Who Is Corrupt, No Man Who Condones Corruption In Others, Can Possibly Do His Duty By The Community.

We Are The Heirs Of The Ages

The Wild Life Of Today Is Not Ours To Do With As We Please. The Original Stock Was Given To Us In Trust For The Benefit Both Of The Present And The Future. We Must Render An Accounting Of This Trust To Those Who Come After Us.

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

The First Requisite Of A Good Citizen In This Republic Of Ours Is That He Shall Be Able And Willing To Pull His Own Weight.

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.

[among The Books He Chooses, A Statesman] Ought To Read Interesting Books On History And Government, And Books Of Science And Philosophy; And Really Good Books On These Subjects Are As Enthralling As Any Fiction Ever Written In Prose Or Verse.

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

...to Befoul The Unholy Alliance Between Corrupt Business And Corrupt Politics Is The First Task Of The Statesmanship Of The Day.

Wars Are, Of Course, As A Rule To Be Avoided; But They Are Far Better Than Certain Kinds Of Peace.

If There Is One Thing For Which We Stand In This Country, It Is For Complete Religious Freedom, And It Is An Emphatic Negation Of This Right To Cross-examine A Man On His Religion Before Being Willing To Support Him For Office.

It Is Not Often That A Man Can Make Opportunities For Himself. But He Can Put Himself In Such Shape That When Or If The Opportunities Come He Is Ready.

Personally I Have Never Been Able To Understand Why The Head Of A Big Business, Whether It Be The Nation, The State Or The Army, Or Navy Should Not Desire To Have Very Strong And Positive People Under Him.

My Experience...convinced Me That Tea Was Better Than Brandy, And During The Last Six Months In Afica I Took No Brandy, Even When Sick Taking Tea Instead.

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.

What Such A Man Needs Is Not Courage But Nerve Control, Cool Headedness. This He Can Get Only By Practice.

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

Every Child Has Inside Him An Aching Void For Excitement And If We Don't Fill It With Something Which Is Exciting And Interesting And Good For Him, He Will Fill It With Something Which Is Exciting And Interesting And Which Isn't Good For Him.

The Dull, Purblind Folly Of The Very Rich Men, Their Greed And Arrogance, And The Corruption In Business And Politics, Have Tended To Produce A Very Unhealthy Condition.

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

Americans Learn Only From Catastrophe And Not From Experience.

When She (my Mother) Passed Away, I Kind Of Understood The Commitment That She Made To Make Sure That I Could Stay In Skating. And I Wanted To Live Up To Whatever I Could. Not So Much Win Everything, But Just To Be The Best That I Could Possibly Be, To Honor Her Memory And Everything She Went Through To Make Sure That I Was Given The Opportunities To Be The Best That I Can Be. Not To Be A World Champion Or An Olympic Gold Medalist, But To Be The Best That I Could Be. And That Was The Most Important Thing That Ever Happened In My Career.

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

No Man Is Above The Law And No Man Is Below It: Nor Do We Ask Any Man's Permission When We Ask Him To Obey It.

Asking Permission

When Liberty Becomes License, Some Form Of One-man Power Is Not Far Distant.

To The Second End, We Hold That Minimum Wage Commissions Should Be Established In The Nation And In Each State To Inquire Into Wages Paid In Various Industries And To Determine The Standard Which The Public Ought To Sanction As A Minimum; And We Believe That, As A Present Installment Of What We Hope For In The Future, There Should Be At Once Established In The Nation And Its Several States Minimum Standards For The Wages Of Women, Taking The Present Massachusetts Law As A Basis From Which To Start And On Which To Improve.

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

Each One Must Do His Part If We Wish To Show That The Nation Is Worthy Of Its Good Fortune.

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 Only Time You Really Live Fully Is From Thirty To Sixty. The Young Are Slaves To Dreams; The Old Servants Of Regrets. Only The Middle-aged Have All Their Five Senses In The Keeping Of Their Wits.

He [lincoln] Had Mastered It {the Bible] Absolutely...mastered It So That He Became Almost 'a Man Of One Book', Who Knew That Book And Who Instinctively Put Into Practice What He Had Been Taught Therein.

I Hold It To Be Our Duty To See That The Wage-worker, The Small Producer, The Ordinary Consumer, Shall Get Their Fair Share Of Business Prosperity. But It Either Is Or Ought To Be Evident To Everyone That Business Has To Prosper Before Anybody Can Get Any Benefit From It.

Of All The Officers Of The Government, Those Of The Department Of Justice Should Be Kept Most Free From Any Suspicion Of Improper Action On Partisan Or Factional Grounds, So That There Shall Be Gradually A Growth, Even Though A Slow Growth, In The Knowledge That The Federal Courts And The Representatives Of The Federal Department Of Justice Insist On Meting Out Even-handed Justice To All.

Freedom Means The Supremacy Of Human Rights Everywhere.

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.

The Chief Factor In Any Man's Success Or Failure Must Be His Own Character.

There Is Nothing More Distressing ... Than The Hard, Scoffing Spirit Which Treats The Allegation Of Dishonesty In A Public Man As A Cause For Laughter. Such Laughter Is Worse Than The Crackling Of Thorns Under A Pot, For It Denotes Not Merely The Vacant Mind, But The Heart In Which High Emotions Have Been Choked Before They Could Grow To Fruition.

It Is Both Foolish And Wicked To Teach The Average Man Who Is Not Well Off That Some Wrong Or Injustice Has Been Done Him, And That He Should Hope For Redress Elsewhere Than In His Own Industry, Honesty, And Intelligence.

There Is A Delight In The Hardy Life Of The Open. There Are No Words That Can Tell The Hidden Spirit Of The Wilderness, That Can Reveal Its Mystery, Its Melancholy And Its Charm. The Nation Behaves Well If It Treats The Natural Resources As Assets Which It Must Turn Over To The Next Generation Increased; And Not Impaired In Value. Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

It Was A Pleasure To Deal With A Man Of High Ideals, Who Scorned Everything Mean And Base, And Who Possessed Those Robust And Hardy Qualities Of Body And Mind, For The Lack Of Which No Merely Negative Virtue Can Ever Atone.

The Plea Of Good Intentions Is Not One That Can Be Allowed To Have Much Weight In Passing Historical Judgment Upon A Man Whose Wrong-headedness And Distorted Way Of Looking At Things Produced, Or Helped To Produce, Such Incalculable Evil; There Is A Wide Political Applicability In The Remark Attributed To A Famous Texan, To The Effect That He Might, In The End, Pardon A Man Who Shot Him On Purpose, But That He Would Surely Never Forgive One Who Did So Accidentally.

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.

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

The Absence Of Effective State, And, Especially, National, Restraint Upon Unfair Money-getting Has Tended To Create A Small Class Of Enormously Wealthy And Economically Powerful Men, Whose Chief Object Is To Hold And Increase Their Power. The Prime Need Is To Change The Conditions Which Enable These Men To Accumulate Power Which Is Not For The General Welfare That They Should Hold Or Exercise. We Grudge No Man A Fortune Which Represents His Own Power And Sagacity, When Exercised With Entire Regard To The Welfare Of His Fellows.

I Have Had A Great Time As President.

Had A Great Time

In Other Words, Character Is Far More Important Than Intellect To The Race As To The Individual. We Need Intellect, And There Is No Reason Why We Should Not Have It Together With Character; But If We Must Choose Between The Two We Choose Character Without A Moment's Hesitation.

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

Malefactors Of Great Wealth Have Arrogantly Ignored The Public Welfare.

Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

If There Is Any One Duty Which More Than Another We Owe It To Our Children And Our Children's Children To Perform At Once, It Is To Save The Forests Of This Country, For They Constitute The First And Most Important Element In The Conservation Of The Natural Resources Of This Country.

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.

In This World The One Thing Supremely Worth Having Is The Opportunity To Do Well And Worthily A Piece Of Work Of Vital Consequence To The Welfare Of Mankind.

When The Time Of Danger Comes, All Americans, Whatever Their Social Standing, Whatever Their Creed, Whatever The Training They Have Received, No Matter From What Section Of The Country They Have Come, Stand Together As Men, As Americans, And Are Content To Face The Same Fate And Do The Same Duties Because Fundamentally They All Alike Have The Common Purpose To Serve The Glorious Flag Of Their Common Country.

There Should Be At Least Ten Times The Number Of Rifles In The Country As There Are Now.

Not Trying Is The Surest Way Of Achieving Nothing At All.

In Any Moment Of Decision, The Best Thing You Can Do Is The Right Thing, The Next Best Thing Is The Wrong Thing, And The Worst Thing You Can Do Is Nothing.

Do Something Now. If Not You, Who? If Not Here, Where? If Not Now, When?

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts

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. But There Is Absolutely Nothing To Be Said For Government By A Plutocracy, For Government By Men Very Powerful In Certain Lines And Gifted With The Money Touch, But With Ideals Which In Their Essence Are Merely Those Of So Many Glorified Pawnbrokers.

The Things That Will Destroy America Are Prosperity-at-any-price, Peace-at-any-price, Safety-first Instead Of Duty-first, The Love Of Soft Living, And The Get-rich-quick Theory Of Life.

Those Who Oppose All Reform Will Do Well To Remember That Ruin In Its Worst Form Is Inevitable If Our National Life Brings Us Nothing Better Than Swollen Fortunes For The Few And The Triumph In Both Politics And Business Of A Sordid And Selfish Materialism.

The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena; Whose Face Is Marred With Dust And Sweat; Who Strives Valiantly; Who Errs And May Fall Again And Again, Because There Is No Effort Without Error Or Shortcoming.

Although Not A Very Old Man, I Have Yet Lived A Great Deal In My Life, And I Have Known Sorrow Too Bitter And Joy Too Keen To Allow Me To Become Either Cast Down Or Elated For More Than A Very Brief Period Over Any Success Or Defeat.

There Is A Point, Of Course, Where A Man Must Take The Isolated Peak And Break With All His Associates For Clear Principle; But Until That Time Comes He Must Work, If He Would Be Of Use, With Men As They Are. As Long As The Good In Them Overbalances The Evil, Let Him Work With Them For The Best That Can Be Obtained.

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!

Such An Experiment Without Actual Conditions Of War To Support It Is A Foolish Waste Of Time. . . . I Once Saw A Man Kill A Lion With A 30-30 Caliber Rifle Under Certain Conditions, But That Doesn't Mean That A 30-30 Rifle Is A Lion Gun.

The Nation Should Be Ruled By The Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments

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

Everyone Loves Justice In The Affairs Of Another.

Old Age Is Like Everything Else. To Make A Success Of It, You've Got To Start Young.

Congratulations

The Constitution Was Made For The People And Not The People For The Constitution.

It Is Only The Warlike Power Of A Civilized People That Can Give Peace To The World.

No Man Who Is Corrupt, No Man Who Condones Corruption In Others, Can Possibly Do His Duty By The Community.

Poverty Is A Bitter Thing; But It Is Not As Bitter As The Existence Of Restless Vacuity And Physical, Moral, And Intellectual Flabbiness, To Which Those Doom Themselves Who Elect To Spend All Their Years In That Vainest Of All Vain Pursuits-the Pursuit Of Mere Pleasure As A Sufficient End In Itself.

The First Requisite Of A Good Citizen In This Republic Of Ours Is That He Shall Be Able And Willing To Pull His Weight; That He Shall Not Be A Mere Passenger, But Shall Do His Share In The Work That Each Generation Of Us Finds Ready To Hand; And, Furthermore, That In Doing His Work He Shall Show, Not Only The Capacity For Sturdy Self-help, But Also Self-respecting Regard For The Rights Of Others.

'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.

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.

I Am Rather More Apt To Read Old Books Than New Ones.

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

I Am An American; Free Born And Free Bred, Where I Acknowledge No Man As My Superior, Except For His Own Worth, Or As My Inferior, Except For His Own Demerit.

We Despise And Abhor The Bully, The Brawler, The Oppressor, Whether In Private Or Public Life, But We Despise No Less The Coward And The Voluptuary. No Man Is Worth Calling A Man Who Will Not Fight Rather Than Submit To Infamy Or See Those That Are Dear To Him Suffer Wrong.

Perhaps The Most Incapable Executive That Ever Filled The Presidential Chair...it Would Be Difficult To Imagine A Man Less Fit To Guide The State With Honor And Safety Through The Stormy Times That Marked The Opening Of The Present Century.

Far And Away The Best Prize That Life Has To Offer Is The Chance To Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

I Am Only An Average Man But, By George, I Work Harder At It Than The Average Man.

Let Individuals Contribute As They Desire; But Let Us Prohibit In Effective Fashion All Corporations From Making Contributions For Any Political Purpose, Directly Or Indirectly.

Nothing Should Be Permitted To Stand In The Way Of The Preservation Of The Forests, And It Is Criminal To Permit Individuals To Purchase A Little Gain For Themselves Through The Destruction Of Forests When This Destruction Is Fatal To The Well-being Of The Whole Country In The Future.

Appraisals Are Where You Get Together With Your Team Leader And Agree What An Outstanding Member Of The Team You Are, How Much Your Contribution Has Been Valued, What Massive Potential You Have And, In Recognition Of All This, Would You Mind Having Your Salary Halved.

The Death-knell Of The Republic Had Rung As Soon As The Active Power Became Lodged In The Hands Of Those Who Sought, Not To Do Justice To All Citizens, Rich And Poor Alike, But To Stand For One Special Class And For Its Interests As Opposed To The Interests Of Others.

The Spirit Of Brotherhood Recognizes Of Necessity Both The Need Of Self-help And Also The Need Of Helping Others In The Only Way Which Every Ultimately Does Great God, That Is, Of Helping Them To Help Themselves.

There Is Not One Among Us In Whom A Devil Does Not Dwell; At Some Time, On Some Point, That Devil Masters Each Of Us... It Is Not Having Been In The Dark House, But Having Left It, That Counts.

I'm As Strong As A Bull Moose And You Can Use Me To The Limit.

We Draw The Line Against Misconduct, Not Against Wealth.

I Do Not Intend That Our Natural Resources Shall Be Exploited By The Few Against The Interests Of The Many.

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.

In The Great Battle Of Life, No Brilliancy Of Intellect, No Perfection Of Bodily Development, Will Count When Weighed In The Balance Against The Assemblage Of Virtues, Active And Passive, Of Moral Qualities Which We Group Together Under The Name Of Character.

Americanism Is A Question Of Spirit, Of Conviction And Purpose, Not Creed Or Birthplaces. The Test Of Our Worth Is The Service We Render.

Nothing Is Gained By Debate On Non-debatable Subjects.

Each Man Must Work For Himself, And Unless He So Works, No Outside Help Can Avail Him.

Death By Violence, Death By Cold, Death By Starvation - They Are The Normal Endings Of The Stately Creatures Of The Wilderness. The Sentimentalists Who Prattle About The Peaceful Life Of Nature Do Not Realize Its Utter Mercilessness.

Fertile Plains, Every Foot Of Them Tilled, Are Of The First Necessity; But Great Natural Playgrounds Of Mountain, Forest, Cliff-walled Lake, And Brawling Brook Are Also Necessary To The Full And Many-sided Development Of A Fine Race.

Yes, My Friend, And If You Will Steal For Me Then You Will Steal From Me.

Trending Author

Augusten Burroughs

Category