Background Image

...

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.

-Theodore Roosevelt

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Of All The Officers

Theodore Roosevelt

...

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.

Views: 9

Topic

More From Theodore Roosevelt

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

Second Amendment

The Most Practical Kind Of Politics Is The Politics Of Decency.

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

It Is A Bad Thing For A Nation To Raise And To Admire A False Standard Of Success; And There Can Be No Falser Standard Than That Set By The Deification Of Material Well-being In And For Itself.

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

Congratulations

A Leader Is An Average, Everyday Person Who Is Highly Motivated.

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

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

A Soft, Easy Life Is Not Worth Living, If It Impairs The Fibre Of Brain And Heart And Muscle. We Must Dare To Be Great; And We Must Realize That Greatness Is The Fruit Of Toil And Sacrifice And High Courage... For Us Is The Life Of Action, Of Strenuous Performance Of Duty; Let Us Live In The Harness, Striving Mightily; Let Us Rather Run The Risk Of Wearing Out Than Rusting Out.

I Have A Perfect Horror Of Words That Are Not Backed Up By Deeds.

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.

No Ability, No Strength And Force, No Power Of Intellect Or Power Of Wealth, Shall Avail Us, If We Have Not The Root Of Right Living In Us.

These International Bankers And Rockefeller Standard Oil Interests Control The Majority Of Newspapers And The Columns Of These Papers To Club Into Submission Or Drive Out Of Public Office Officials Who Refuse To Do The Bidding Of The Powerful Corrupt Cliques Which Compose The Invisible Government.

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.

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.

In A Crisis, The Man Worth His Salt Is The Man Who Meets The Needs Of The Situation In Whatever Way Is Necessary.

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.

Our Country, We Have Faith To Believe, Is Only At The Beginning Of Its Growth. Unless The Forests Of The United States Can Be Made Ready To Meet The Vast Demands Which This Growth Will Inevitably Bring, Commercial Disaster, That Means Disaster To The Whole Country, Is Inevitable.

Everyone Loves Justice In The Affairs Of Another.

I Have Already Lived And Enjoyed As Much Life As Any Nine Other Men I Have Known.

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

When We Undertake The Impossible, We Often Fail To Do Anything At All.

Nothing In The World Is Worth Having Or Worth Doing Unless It Means Effort, Pain, Difficulty… I Have Never In My Life Envied A Human Being Who Led An Easy Life. I Have Envied A Great Many People Who Led Difficult Lives And Led Them Well.

If I Have To Choose Between Peace And Righteousness, I'll Choose Righteousness.

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

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

Every Reform Movement Has A Lunatic Fringe.

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.

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.

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

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.

It Is Hard To Fail, But It Is Worse Never To Have Tried To Succeed.

If We Seek Merely Swollen, Slothful Ease And Ignoble Peace, If We Shrink From The Hard Contests Where Men Must Win At The Hazard Of Their Lives And At The Risk Of All They Hold Dear, Then Bolder And Stronger Peoples Will Pass Us By, And Will Win For Themselves The Domination Of The World.

Of All Forms Of Tyranny The Least Attractive And The Most Vulgar Is The Tyranny Of Mere Wealth.

It Is Time For Us Now As A Nation To Exercise The Same Reasonable Foresight In Dealing With Our Great Natural Resources That Would Be Shown By Any Prudent Man In Conserving And Widely Using The Property Which Contains The Assurance Of Well-being For Himself And His Children.

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

Give A Man A Soccer Ball, He Plays For A Moment. Teach A Man To Play Soccer, He Plays For A Life Time.

The Only Man Who Never Makes A Mistake Is The Man Who Never Does Anything.

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.

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!'

We Draw The Line Against Misconduct, Not Against Wealth.

We Have Room But For One Language Here And That Is The English Language, For We Intend To See That The Crucible Turns Our People Out As Americans Of American Nationality And Not As Dwellers In A Polyglot Boarding-house.

Every Expansion Of Civilization Makes For Peace. In Other Words, Every Expansion Of A Great Civilized Power Means A Victory For Law, Order, And Righteousness. ...it Is Only The Warlike Power Of A Civilized People That Can Give Peace To The World.

We Can No More And No Less Afford To Condone Evil In The Man Of Capital Than Evil In The Man Of No Capital.

I Wish To Say Seriously To All The Daily Newspapers, To The Republicans, The Democrat, And Socialist Parties, That They Cannot, Month In Month Out And Year In And Year Out, Make The Kind Of Untruthful, Of Bitter Assault That They Have Made And Not Expect That Brutal, Violent Natures, Or Brutal And Violent Characters, Especially When The Brutality Is Accompanied By A Not Very Strong Mind; They Cannot Expect That Such Natures Will Be Unaffected By It.

Freemasonry Teaches Not Merely Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Brotherly Love, Relief, And Truth, But Liberty, Equality, And Fraternity, And It Denounces Ignorance, Superstition, Bigotry, Lust Tyranny And Despotism.

Men With The Muckrake Are Often Indispensable To The Well-being Of Society, But Only If They Know When To Stop Raking The Muck, And To Look Upward To The Celestial Crown Above Them.... If They Gradually Grow To Feel That The Whole World Is Nothing But Muck Their Power Of Usefulness Is Gone.

If You Could Kick The Person In The Pants Responsible For Most Of Your Trouble, You Wouldn't Sit For A Month.

We Must All Either Wear Out Or Rust Out, Every One Of Us. My Choice Is To Wear Out.

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.

Happiness Lies Not In The Mere Possession Of Money; It Lies In The Joy Of Achievement, In The Thrill Of Creative Effort. The Joy And Moral Stimulation Of Work Must No Longer Be Forgotten In The Mad Chase Of Evanescent Profits.

I Always Believe In Going Hard At Everything, Whether It Is Latin Or Mathematics, Boxing Or Football, But At The Same Time I Want To Keep The Sense Of Proportion. It Is Never Worth While To Absolutely Exhaust One's Self Or To Take Big Chances Unless For An Adequate Object. I Want You To Keep In Training The Faculties Which Would Make You, If The Need Arose, Able To Put Your Last Ounce Of Pluck And Strength Into A Contest. But I Do Not Want You To Squander These Qualities.

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.

After The War, And Until The Day Of His Death, His Position On Almost Every Public Question Was Either Mischievous Or Ridiculous, And Usually Both.

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

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.

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.

There Is No Patent Recipe For Getting Good Citizenship. You Get It By Applying The Old, Old Rules Of Decent Conduct, The Rules In Accordance With Which Decent Men Have Had To Shape Their Lives From The Beginning .. Fundamental Precepts, Put Forth In The Bible And Embodied Consciously Or Unconsciously In The Code Of Morals Of Every Great And Successful Nation From Antiquity To Modern Times.

Thank God For The Iron In The Blood Of Our Fathers

The American People Abhor A Vacuum.

Ruin Looks Us In The Face If We Judge A Man By His Position Instead Of Judging Him By His Conduct In That Position.

A Grove Of Giant Redwood Or Sequoias Should Be Kept Just As We Keep A Great And Beautiful Cathedral.

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

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

I Am Delighted To Have You Play Football. I Believe In Rough, Manly Sports. But I Do Not Believe In Them If They Degenerate Into The Sole End Of Any One's Existence. I Don't Want You To Sacrifice Standing Well In Your Studies To Any Over-athleticism; And I Need Not Tell You That Character Counts For A Great Deal More Than Either Intellect Or Body In Winning Success In Life. Athletic Proficiency Is A Mighty Good Servant, And Like So Many Other Good Servants, A Mighty Bad Master.

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.

The Farmer Is A Poor Creature Who Skins The Land And Leaves It Worthless To His Children. The Farmer Is A Good Farmer Who, Having Enabled The Land To Support Himself And To Provide For The Education Of His Children, Leaves It To Them A Little Better Than He Found It Himself.

The Men And Women Who Have The Right Ideals . . . Are Those Who Have The Courage To Strive For The Happiness Which Comes Only With Labor And Effort And Self-sacrifice, And Those Whose Joy In Life Springs In Part From Power Of Work And Sense Of Duty.

There Are Two Kinds Of Success. One Is The Rare Kind That Comes To The Person Who Has The Power To Do What No One Else Has The Power To Do. That Is Genius. But The Average Person Who Wins What We Call Success Is Not A Genius. That Person Is A Man Or Woman Who Has Merely The Ordinary Qualities That They Share With Their Fellows, But Has Developed Those Ordinary Qualities To A More Than Ordinary Degree.

Never Hit If You Can Help It, But When You Have To, Hit Hard. Never Hit Soft. You'll Never Get Any Thanks For Hitting Soft.

The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena..who Errs, Who Comes Short Again And Again; But Who Does Actually Strive To Do The Deeds; Who Spends Himself In A Worthy Cause.

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

In This Country We Have No Place For Hyphenated Americans.

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.

We Cannot Do Great Deeds Unless We're Willing To Do The Small Things That Make Up The Sum Of Greatness.

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

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.

Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are.

Mother Went Off For Three Days To New York And Mame And Quentin Took Instant Advantage Of Her Absence To Fall Sick. Quentin's Sickness Was Surely Due To A Riot In Candy And Ice-cream With Chocolate Sauce.

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.

Argument Weak; Speak Loudly!

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.

If There Is Not The War, You Don't Get The Great General; If There Is Not A Great Occasion, You Don't Get A Great Statesman; If Lincoln Had Lived In A Time Of Peace, No One Would Have Known His Name.

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.

The Eighth Commandment Reads, "thou Shalt Not Steal." It Does Not Read, "thou Shalt Not Steal From The Rich Man." It Does Not Read, "thou Shalt Not Steal From The Poor Man." It Reads Simply And Plainly, "thou Shalt Not Steal."

No Other President Ever Enjoyed The Presidency As I Did.

It's Not The Critic Who Counts, Nor The Man Who Points Out How The Strong Man Stumbles, Or Where The Doer Of The Deeds Could Have Done Better.

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.

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

If I Have Erred, I Err In Company With Abraham Lincoln.

The Bad Lands Grade All The Way From Those That Are Almost Rolling In Character To Those That Are So Fantastically Broken In Form And So Bizarre In Color As To Seem Hardly Properly To Belong To This Earth.

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

No Great Intellectual Thing Was Ever Done By Great Effort.

The Most Important Single Ingredient In The Formula Of Success Is Knowing How To Get Along With People.

Rhetoric Is A Poor Substitute For Action, And We Have Trusted Only To Rhetoric. If We Are Really To Be A Great Nation, We Must Not Merely Talk; We Must Act Big.

The White House Is A Bully Pulpit.

Most Of Us Tiptoe Through Life In Order To Make It Safely To Death.

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

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.

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.

It Is True Of The Nation, As Of The Individual, That The Greatest Doer Must Also Be A Great Dreamer.

It Is Only Through Labor And Painful Effort, By Grim Energy And Resolute Courage, That We Move On To Better Things.

A Great Democracy Must Be Progressive Or It Will Soon Cease To Be A Great Democracy.

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.

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.

The United States Does Not Have A Choice As To Whether Or Not Is Will Or Will Not Play A Great Part In The World. Fate Has Made That Choice For Us. The Only Question Is Whether We Will Play The Part Well Or Badly.

Death Is Always, Under All Circumstances, A Tragedy, For If It Is Not Then It Means That Life Has Become One.

If A Man Has A Very Decided Character, Has A Strongly Accentuated Career, It Is Normally The Case Of Course That He Makes Ardent Friends And Bitter Enemies.

Mckinley Has No More Backbone Than A Chocolate Eclair.

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

Making Mistakes

We [must] Hold The Just Balance And Set Ourselves As Resolutely Against Improper Corporate Influence On The One Hand As Against Demagogy And Mob Rule On The Other.

Leave It As It Is. You Can Not Improve On It. You Can Only Mar It. The Ages Have Been At Work On It And Man Can Only Mar It. What You Can Do Is Keep It For Your Children, Your Children's Children And For All Who Come After You.

When I Hear Of The Destruction Of A Species, I Feel Just As If All The Works Of Some Great Writer Have Perished.

A President Has A Great Chance; His Position Is Almost That Of A King And A Prime Minister Rolled Into One.

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.

Our Loyalty Is Due Entirely To The United States. It Is Due To The President Only And Exactly To The Degree In Which He Efficiently Serves The United States. It Is Our Duty To Support Him When He Serves The United States Well. It Is Our Duty To Oppose Him When He Serves It Badly. This Is True About Mr. Wilson Now And It Has Been True About All Our Presidents In The Past. It Is Our Duty At All Times To Tell The Truth About The President And About Every One Else, Save In The Cases Where To Tell The Truth At The Moment Would Benefit The Public Enemy.

Any Man Who Tries To Excite Class Hatred, Sectional Hate, Hate Of Creeds, Any Kind Of Hatred In Our Community, Though He May Affect To Do It In The Interest Of The Class He Is Addressing, Is In The Long Run With Absolute Certainly That Class's Own Worst Enemy.

We Have Become Great Because Of The Lavish Use Of Our Resources ... But The Time Has Come To Inquire Seriously What Will Happen When Our Forests Are Gone, When The Coal, The Iron, The Oil And The Gas Are Exhausted.

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.

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.

Everything Is Un-american That Tends Either To Government By A Plutocracy Or Government By A Mob. To Divide Along The Lines Of Section Or Caste Or Creed Is Un-american. All Privileges Based On Wealth, And All Enmity To Honest Men Merely Because They Are Wealthy, Are Un-american-both Of Them Equally So. 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.

The Nation Should Be Ruled By The Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments

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.

Big Jobs Usually Go To The Men Who Prove Their Ability To Outgrow Small Ones.

The Reader, The Booklover, Must Meet His Own Needs Without Paying Too Much Attention To What His Neighbors Say Those Needs Should Be.

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 Modern Naturalist Must Realize That In Some Of Its Branches His Profession, While More Than Ever A Science, Has Also Become An Art.

Life Is A Great Adventure…accept It In Such A Spirit.

We Are The Heirs Of The Ages

The Important Thing Is This: That, Under Such Government Recognition As We May Give To That Which Is Beneficent And Wholesome In Large Business Organizations, We Shall Be Most Vigilant Never To Allow Them To Crystallize Into A Condition Which Shall Make Private Initiative Difficult. It Is Of The Utmost Importance That In The Future We Shall Keep The Broad Path Of Opportunity Just As Open And Easy For Our Children As It Was For Our Fathers During The Period Which Has Been The Glory Of America's Industrial History.

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

We Stand At Armageddon And We Battle For The Lord.

My Hat's In The Ring. The Fight Is On And I'm Stripped To The Buff.

There Is No Room In This Country For Hyphenated Americanism. When I Refer To Hyphenated Americans, I Do Not Refer To Naturalized Americans. Some Of The Very Best Americans I Have Ever Known Were Naturalized Americans, Americans Born Abroad. But A Hyphenated American Is Not An American At All.

If Given The Choice Between Righteousness And Peace, I Choose Righteousness.

No Educated Man Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible.

There Were All Kinds Of Things I Was Afraid Of At First, Ranging From Grizzly Bears To 'mean' Horses And Gun-fighters; But By Acting As If I Was Not Afraid I Gradually Ceased To Be Afraid.

Anything That Encourages Pauperism, Anything That Relaxes The Manly Fiber And Lowers Self-respect, Is An Unmixed Evil.

It Is Character That Counts In A Nation As In A Man.

Willful Sterility Is, From The Standpoint Of The Nation, From The Standpoint Of The Human Race, The One Sin For Which The Penalty Is National Death, Race Death; A Sin For Which There Is No Atonement. No Man, No Woman, Can Shirk The Primary Duties Of Life, Whether For Love Of Ease And Pleasure, Or For Any Other Cause, And Retain His Or Her Self-respect.

The Most Ultimately Righteous Of All Wars Is A War With Savages.

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.

From The Very Beginning Our People Have Markedly Combined Practical Capacity For Affairs With Power Of Devotion To An Ideal. The Lack Of Either Quality Would Have Rendered The Other Of Small Value.

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.

A Man's Usefulness Depends On His Living Up To His Ideals Insofar As He Can. It Is Hard To Fail But It Is Worse Never To Have Tried To Succeed. All Daring And Courage, All Iron Endurance Of Misfortune, Make For A Finer, Nobler Type Of Manhood. 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.

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.

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

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

Every Man Owes A Part Of His Time And Money To The Business Or Industry In Which He Is Engaged. No Man Has The Moral Right To Withhold His Support From An Organization That Is Striving To Improve Conditions Within His Sphere.

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

Some Reformers May Urge That In The Ages Distant Future, Patriotism, Like The Habit Of Monogamous Marriage, Will Become A Needless And Obsolete Virtue; But Just At Present The Man Who Loves Other Countries As Much As He Does His Own Is Quite As Noxious A Member Of Society As The Man Who Loves Other Women As Much As He Loves His Wife. Love Of Country Is An Elemental Virtue, Like Love Of Home.

Practical Efficiency Is Common, And Lofty Idealism Not Uncommon; It Is The Combination Which Is Necessary, And The Combination Is Rare

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.

Justice Consists Not In Being Neutral Between Right And Wrong, But Finding Out The Right And Upholding It, Wherever Found, Against The Wrong.

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.

There Is Apt To Be A Lunatic Fringe Among The Votaries Of Any Forward Movement.

Forward Movement

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.

I Have Had A Great Time As President.

Had A Great Time

This Broken Country Extends Back From The River For Many Miles And Has Been Called Always Be Indian, French Voyager And American Trappers Alike, The Bad Lands.

The Six Great Gifts Of An Irish Girl Are Beauty, Soft Voice, Sweet Speech, Wisdom, Needlework, And Chastity.

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.

Over-sentimentality, Over-softness, In Fact Washiness And Mushiness Are The Great Dangers Of This Age And Of This People. Unless We Keep The Barbarian Virtues, Gaining The Civilized Ones Will Be Of Little Avail.

No Man Is Above The Law, And No Man Is Below It.

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.

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

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.

I Enter A Most Earnest Plea That In Our Hurried And Rather Bustling Life Of Today We Do Not Lose The Hold That Our Forefathers Had On The Bible.

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

The Conservation Of Our Natural Resources And Their Proper Use Constitute The Fundamental Problem Which Underlies Almost Every Other Problem Of Our National Life.

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.

A Typical Vice Of American Politics Is The Avoidance Of Saying Anything Real On Real Issues.

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.

If We Lose The Virile, Manly Qualities, And Sink Into A Nation Of Mere Hucksters, Putting Gain Over National Honor, And Subordinating Everything To Mere Ease Of Life, Then We Shall Indeed Reach A Condition Worse Than That Of The Ancient Civilizations In The Years Of Their Decay.

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

Any Political Movement Directed Against Any Body Of Our Fellow-citizens Because Of Their Religious Creed Is A Grave Offense Against American Principles And American Institutions. It Is A Wicked Thing Either To Support Or Oppose A Man Because Of The Creed He Possesses. . . . Such A Movement Directly Contravenes The Spirit Of The Constitution Itself.

Great Corporations Exist Only Because They Are Created And Safeguarded By Our Institutions; And It Is Therefore Our Right And Duty To See That They Work In Harmony With These Institutions.

Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy.

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.

Of One Man In Especial, Beyond Anyone Else, The Citizens Of A Republic Should Beware, And That Is Of The Man Who Appeals To Them To Support Him On The Ground That He Is Hostile To Other Citizens Of The Republic, That He Will Secure For Those Who Elect Him, In One Shape Or Another, Profit At The Expense Of Other Citizens Of The Republic. It Makes No Difference Whether He Appeals To Class Hatred Or Class Interest, To Religious Or Anti-religious Prejudice. The Man Who Makes Such An Appeal Should Always Be Presumed To Make It For The Sake Of Furthering His Own Interest.

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.

The Lives Of Truest Heroism Are Those In Which There Are No Great Deeds To Look Back Upon. It Is The Little Things Well Done That Go To Make Up A Truly Successful And Good Life.

Power Always Brings With It Responsibility.

In The Long Run, The Most Unpleasant Truth Is A Safer Companion Than A Pleasant Falsehood.

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.

Toward All Other Nations, Large And Small, Our Attitude Must Be One Of Cordial And Sincere Friendship. We Must Show Not Only In Our Words, But In Our Deeds, That We Are Earnestly Desirous Of Securing Their Good Will By Acting Toward Them In A Spirit Of Just And Generous Recognition Of All Their Rights.

A Small Politician, Of Low Capacity And Mean Surroundings, Proud To Act As The Servile Tool Of Men Worse Than Himself But Also Stronger And Abler.

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.

No Triumph Of Peace Is Quite So Great As The Supreme Triumphs Of War.

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.

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

To Have Acted Otherwise ... Would Have Been The Betrayal Of The Interests Of The United States.

A People Without Children Would Face A Hopeless Future; A Country Without Trees Is Almost As Helpless; Forests Which Are So Used That They Cannot Renew Themselves Will Soon Vanish, And With Them All Their Benefits. A True Forest Is Not Merely A Storehouse Full Of Wood, But, As It Were, A Factory Of Wood And At The Same Time A Reservoir Of Water. When You Help To Preserve Our Forests Or Plant New Ones You Are Acting The Part Of Good Citizens.

From The Greatest To The Smallest, Happiness And Usefulness Are Largely Found In The Same Soul, And The Joy Of Life Is Won In Its Deepest And Truest Sense Only By Those Who Have Not Shirked Life's Burdens.

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

The Worst Lesson That Can Be Taught To A Man Is To Rely Upon Others And To Whine Over His Sufferings

The Greatest Privilege And Greatest Duty For Any Man Is To Be Happily Married, And No Other Form Of Success Or Service, For Either Man Or Woman, Can Be Wisely Accepted As A Substitute Or Alternative

A Party Should Not Contain Utterly Incongruous Elements, Radically Divided On The Real Issues, And Acting Together Only On False And Dead Issues Insincerely Painted As Real And Vital. It Should Not In The Several States As Well As In The Nation Be Prostituted To The Service Of The Baser Type Of Political Boss. It Should Be So Composed That There Should Be A Reasonable Agreement In The Actions Taken By It Both In The Nation And In The Several States. Judged By These Standards, Both Of The Old Parties Break Down.

The Ordinary Air Fighter Is An Extraordinary Man And The Extraordinary Air Fighter Stands As One In A Million Among His Fellows.

Just As Lincoln Got Contradictory Advice From The Extremists Of Both Sides . . . So Now I Have To Guard Myself Against The Extremists Of Both Sides.

Trending Author

Richard P. Feynman

Colleen McCullough

Nicholas D. Kristof

Category