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Of All The Questions Which Can Come Before This Nation, Short Of The Actual Preservation Of Its Existence In A Great War, There Is None Which Compares In Importance With The Great Central Task Of Leaving This Land Even A Better Land For Our Descendants Than It Is For Us.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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Of All The Questions

Theodore Roosevelt

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Of All The Questions Which Can Come Before This Nation, Short Of The Actual Preservation Of Its Existence In A Great War, There Is None Which Compares In Importance With The Great Central Task Of Leaving This Land Even A Better Land For Our Descendants Than It Is For Us.

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While President, I Have Been President - Emphatically.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

There Is No Room In This Country For Hyphenated Americanism. The One Absolutely Certain Way Of Bringing This Nation To Ruin, Of Preventing All Possibility Of Its Continuing To Be A Nation At All, Would Be To Permit It To Become A Tangle Of Squabbling Nationalities.

I Think There Is Only One Quality Worse Than Hardness Of Heart And That Is Softness Of Head.

Nothing Could Be More Lonely And Nothing More Beautiful Than The View At Nightfall Across The Prairies To These Huge Hill Masses, When The Lengthening Shadows Had At Last Merged Into One And The Faint After-glow Of The Red Sunset Filled The West.

Perhaps There Is No More Important Component Of Character Than Steadfast Resolution.

It Is Of Far More Important That A Man Shall Play Something Himself, Even If He Plays It Badly, Than That He Shall Go With Hundreds Of Companions To See Someone Else Play Well.

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

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

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

A Really Great People, Proud And High Spirited, Would Face All The Disasters Of War Rather Than Purchase That Base Prosperity Which Is Bought At The Price Of National Honor.

Be Practical As Well As Generous In Your Ideals. Keep Your Eyes On The Stars, But Remember To Keep Your Feet On The Ground.

Generous Spirit

The True Christians Are The True Citizens, Lofty Of Purpose, Resolute In Endeavor, Ready For A Hero's Deeds, But Never Looking Down On Their Task Because It Is Cast In The Day Of Small Things; Scornful Of Baseness, Awake To Their Own Duties As Well As To Their Rights, Following The Higher Law With Reverence, And In This World Doing All That In Their Power Lies, So That When Death Comes They May Feel That Humanity Is In Some Degree Better Because They Lived.

If There Is One Tendency Of The Day Which More Than Any Other Is Unhealthy And Undesirable, It Is The Tendency To Deify Mere "smartness," Unaccompanied By A Sense Of Moral Accountability. We Shall Never Make Our Republic What It Should Be Until As A People We Thoroughly Understand And Put In Practice The Doctrine That Success Is Abhorrent If Attained By The Sacrifice Of The Fundamental Principles Of Morality.

There Is Superstition In Science Quite As Much As There Is Superstition In Theology, And It Is All The More Dangerous Because Those Suffering From It Are Profoundly Convinced That They Are Freeing Themselves From All Superstition.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Corporation That Shrinks From The Light" Would Have Anything To Fear From Government. About The Welfare Of Such Corporations We Need Not Be Oversensitive.

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.

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.

It Pays No Matter What Comes After It, To Try And Do Things, To Accomplish Things In This Life And Not Merely To Have A Soft And Pleasant Time.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rough Board Shelves Hold A Number Of Books, Without Which Some Of The Evenings Would Be Long Indeed.

We Want Men Who Will Fix Their Eyes On The Stars, But Who Will Not Forget That Their Feet Must Walk On The Ground.

I Violate No Secret When I Say That One Of The Greatest Values In Masonry Is That It Affords An Opportunity For Men Of All Walks Of Life To Meet On Common Ground Where All Men Are Equal And Have One Common Interest.

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.

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.

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.

Every Man Holds His Property Subject To The General Right Of The Community To Regulate Its Use To Whatever Degree The Public Welfare May Require It.

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.

Every Reform Movement Has A Lunatic Fringe.

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.

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

Of All The Questions Which Can Come Before This Nation, Short Of The Actual Preservation Of Its Existence In A Great War, There Is None Which Compares In Importance With The Great Central Task Of Leaving This Land Even A Better Land For Our Descendants Than It Is For Us.

At The Risk Of Repetition Let Me Say Again That My Plea Is Not For Immunity To, But For The Most Unsparing Exposure Of, The Politician Who Betrays His Trust, Of The Big Business Man Who Makes Or Spends His Fortune In Illegitimate Or Corrupt Ways. There Should Be A Resolute Effort To Hunt Every Such Man Out Of The Position He Has Disgraced. Expose The Crime, And Hunt Down The Criminal; But Remember That Even In The Case Of Crime, If It Is Attacked In Sensational, Lurid, And Untruthful Fashion, The Attack May Do More Damage To The Public Mind Than The Crime Itself.

There Is No Effort Without Error Or Shortcoming.

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

Congratulations

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

The Fool Who Has Not Sense To Discriminate Between What Is Good And What Is Bad Is Well Nigh As Dangerous As The Man Who Does Discriminate And Yet Chooses The Bad.

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.

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

Compromise" Is So Often Used In A Bad Sense That It Is Difficult To Remember That Properly It Merely Describes The Process Of Reaching An Agreement. Naturally There Are Certain Subjects On Which No Man Can Compromise. For Instance, There Must Be No Compromise Under Any Circumstances With Official Corruption, And Of Course No Man Should Hesitate To Say As Much.

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 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.

The Bulk Of Government Is Not Legislation But Administration.

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.

Councils Of War Never Fight.

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.

Don't Spread Patriotism Too Thin.

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.

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.

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.

No Nation Can Be Really Great Unless It Is Great In Peace, In Industry, Integrity, Honesty. Skilled Intelligence In Civic Affairs And Industrial Enterprises Alike; The Special Ability Of The Artist, The Man Of Letters, The Man Of Science, And The Man Of Business; The Rigid Determination To Wrong No Man, And To Stand For Righteousness-all These Are Necessary In A Great Nation.

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

Making Mistakes

Nobody Cares How Much You Know, Until They Know How Much You Care.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

In The First Place We Should Insist That If The Immigrant Who Comes Here In Good Faith Becomes An American And Assimilates Himself To Us, He Shall Be Treated On An Exact Equality With Everyone Else, For It Is An Outrage To Discriminate Against Any Such Man Because Of Creed, Or Birthplace, Or Origin. But This Is Predicated Upon The Man's Becoming In Very Fact An American, And Nothing But An American.

Get Action. Seize The Moment. Man Was Never Intended To Become An Oyster.

A Finer Body Of Men Has Never Been Gathered By Any Nation Than The Men Who Have Done The Work Of Building The Panama Canal; The Conditions Under Which They Have Lived And Have Done Their Work Have Been Better Than In Any Similar Work Ever Undertaken In The Tropics; They Have All Felt An Eager Pride In Their Work; And They Have Made Not Only America But The Whole World Their Debtors By What They Have Accomplished.

The Man Who Does Not Think It Was America's Duty To Fight For Her Own Sake In View Of The Infamous Conduct Of Germany Toward Us Stands On A Level With A Man Who Wouldn't Think It Necessary To Fight In A Private Quarrel Because His Wife's Face Was Slapped.

No Man Can Be A Good Citizen Unless He Has A Wage More Than Sufficient To Cover The Bare Cost Of Living, And Hours Of Labor Short Enough So After His Day's Work Is Done He Will Have Time And Energy To Bear His Share In The Management Of The Community, To Help In Carrying The General Load.

Order Without Liberty And Liberty Without Order Are Equally Destructive.

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

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.

Men With The Muckrake Are Often Indispensable To The Well-being Of Society, But Only If They Know When To Stop Raking The Muck.

Rarely Has Any People Enjoyed Greater Prosperity Than We Are Now Enjoying. For This We Render Heartfelt And Solemn Thanks To The Giver Of Good; And We Seek To Praise Him -not By Words Only -but By Deeds, By The Way In Which We Do Our Duty To Ourselves And To Our Fellow Men.

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.

It Is The People, And Not The Judges, Who Are Entitled To Say What Their Constitution Means, For The Constitution Is Theirs, It Belongs To Them And Not To Their Servants In Office—any Other Theory Is Incompatible With The Foundation Principles Of Our Government.

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

The Government Is Us; We Are The Government, You And I."- Theodore Roosevelt

We Can Just As Little Afford To Follow The Doctrinaires Of An Extreme Individualism As The Doctrinaires Of An Extreme Socialism.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Argument Weak; Speak Loudly!

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.

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

It Is By No Means Necessary That A Great Nation Should Always Stand At The Heroic Level. But No Nation Has The Root Of Greatness In It Unless In Time Of Need It Can Rise To The Heroic Mood.

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

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.

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

I Abhor Unjust War. I Abhor Injustice And Bullying By The Strong At The Expense Of The Weak, Whether Among Nations Or Individuals. I Abhor Violence And Bloodshed. I Believe That War Should Never Be Resorted To When, Or So Long As, It Is Honorably Possible To Avoid It. I Respect All Men And Women Who From High Motives And With Sanity And Self-respect Do All They Can To Avert War. I Advocate Preparation For War In Order To Avert War; And I Should Never Advocate War Unless It Were The Only Alternative To Dishonor.

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

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

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

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. I Wish To See The Bible Study As Much A Matter Of Course In The Secular Colleges As In The Seminary. No Educated Man Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible, And No Uneducated Man Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible.

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

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.

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

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

If I Were A Factory Employee, A Workman On The Railroads Or A Wage-earner Of Any Sort, I Would Undoubtedly Join The Union Of My Trade. If I Disapproved Of Its Policy, I Would Join In Order To Fight That Policy; If The Union Leaders Were Dishonest, I Would Join In Order To Put Them Out. I Believe In The Union And I Believe That All Men Who Are Benefited By The Union Are Morally Bound To Help To The Extent Of Their Power In The Common Interests Advanced By The Union.

To Announce That There Must Be No Criticism Of The President, Or That We Are To Stand By The President, Right Or Wrong, Is Not Only Unpatriotic And Servile, But Is Morally Treasonable To The American Public. Nothing But The Truth Should Be Spoken About Him Or Any One Else. But It Is Even More Important To Tell The Truth, Pleasant Or Unpleasant, About Him Than About Any One Else.

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

The Function Of Our Government Is To Insure To All Its Citizens, Now And Hereafter, Their Rights To Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness. If We Of This Generation Destroy The Resources From Which Our Children Would Otherwise Derive Their Livelihood, We Reduce The Capacity Of Our Land To Support A Population, And So Either Degrade The Standard Of Living Or Deprive The Coming Generations Of Their Fight To Life On This Continent.

Pursuit Of Happiness

The Foes From Whom We Pray To Be Delivered Are Our Own Passions, Appetites, And Follies; And Against These There Is Always Need That We Should War.

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.

Water Is A Commodity Not By Any Means To Be Found Everywhere...when Found, It Is More Than Likely To Be Bad, Being Either From A Bitter Alkaline Pool, Or From A Hole In A Creek, So Muddy That It Can Only Be Called Liquid By Courtesy.

I Have Often Thought That Unselfishness Combined In One Word More Of The Teachings Of The Bible Than Any Other In The Language.

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.

We Have A Right To Expect That The Best Trained, The Best Educated Men On The Pacific Slope, The Rocky Mountains, And Great Plains States Will Take The Lead In The Preservation And Right Use Of Forests, In Securing The Right Use Of Waters, And In Seeing That Our Land Policy Is Not Twisted From Its Original Purpose, But Is Perpetuated By Amendment, By Change When Such Change Is Necessary In The Life Of That Purpose, The Purpose Being To Turn The Public Domain Into Farms Each To Be The Property Of The Man Who Actually Tills It And Makes His Home In It.

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.

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

I Believe That There Should Be A Very Much Heavier Progressive Tax On Very Large Incomes, A Tax Which Should Increase In A Very Marked Fashion For The Gigantic Incomes.

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.

The One Characteristic More Essential Than Any Other Is Foresight... It Should Be The Growing Nation With A Future Which Takes The Long Look Ahead.

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

Freemasonry Must Stand Upon The Rock Of Truth, Religion, Political, Social, And Economic. Nothing Is So Worthy Of Its Care As Freedom In All Its Aspects. "free" Is The Most Vital Part Of Freemasonry. It Means Freedom Of Thought And Expression, Freedom Of Spiritual And Religious Ideals, Freedom From Oppression, Freedom From Ignorance, Superstition, Vice And Bigotry, Freedom To Acquire And Possess Property, To Go And Come At Pleasure, And To Rise Or Fall According To Will Of Ability.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Nothing Is Gained By Debate On Non-debatable Subjects.

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.

The One Quality Which Sets One Man Apart From Another- The Key Which Lifts One To Every Aspiration While Others Are Caught Up In The Mire Of Mediocrity- Is Not Talent, Formal Education, Nor Intellectual Brightness - It Is Self-discipline. With Self-discipline All Things Are Possible. Without It, Even The Simplest Goal Can Seem Like The Impossible Dream.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Kings And Such Are Just As Funny As Politicians.

There Is More Fine Abstract Design In Navajo Rugs Than In All These Modern Paintings.

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.

Rattlesnakes Are Only Too Plentiful Everywhere; Along The River Bottoms, In The Broken, Hilly Ground, And On The Prairies And The Great Desert Wastes Alike...if It Can It Will Get Out Of The Way, And Only Coils Up In Its Attitude Of Defence When It Believes That It Is Actually Menaced.

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

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

Get Action. Do Things; Be Sane; Don't Fritter Away Your Time; Create, Act, Take A Place Wherever You Are And Be Somebody; Get Action.

Wherever You Are

There Never Has Been Devised, And There Never Will Be Devised, Any Law Which Will Enable A Man To Succeed Save By The Exercise Of Those Qualities Which Have Always Been The Prerequisites Of Success - The Qualities Of Hard Work, Of Keen Intelligence, Of Unflinching Will.

I Don't Go So Far As To Think That The Only Good Indians Are Dead Indians, But I Believe Nine Out Of Ten Are, And I Shouldn't Like To Inquire Too Closely Into The Case Of The Tenth.

Wild Flowers Should Be Enjoyed Unplucked Where They Grow.

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

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.

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.

In This Country We Have No Place For Hyphenated Americans.

The Joy Of Living Is His Who Has The Heart To Demand It. Life Is A Great Adventure, And I Want To Say To You, Accept It In Such A Spirit.

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.

This Country Will Not Be A Good Place For Any Of Us To Live In Unless We Make It A Good Place For All Of Us To Live In.

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 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.

Everyone Loves Justice In The Affairs Of Another.

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.

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.

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.

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

All That The Law Can Do Is To Shape Things So That No Injustice Shall Be Done By One To The Other, And That Each Man Shall Be Given The First Chance To Show The Stuff That Is In Him.

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

I Do Not Dislike But I Certainly Have No Especial Respect Or Admiration For And No Trust In, The Typical Big Moneyed Men Of My Country. I Do Not Regard Them As Furnishing Sound Opinion As Respects Either Foreign Or Domestic Business.

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

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.

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 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.

I Must Be Wanting To Be President. Every Young Man Does. But I Won't Let Myself Think Of It; I Must Not, Because If I Do, I Will Begin To Work For It; I'll Be Careful, Calculating, Cautious In Word And Act, And So - I'll Beat Myself.

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

There Are Rainy Days In Autumn And Stormy Days In Winter When The Rocking Chair In Front Of The Fire Simply Demands An Accompanying Book.

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.

Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

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.

The Beauty And Charm Of The Wilderness Are His For The Asking, For The Edges Of The Wilderness Lie Close Beside The Beaten Roads Of The Present Travel.

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.

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.

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

No Other President Ever Enjoyed The Presidency As I Did.

We Do Not Admire The Man Of Timid Peace. We Admire The Man Who Embodies Victorious Effort; The Man Who Never Wrongs His Neighbor, Who Is Prompt To Help A Friend, But Who Has Those Virile Qualities Necessary To Win In The Stern Strife Of Actual Life.

Massive Potential You Have And, In Recognition Of All This, Would You Mind Having Your Salary Halved.

When Money Comes In At The Gate, Sport Flies Out At The Window.

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

I Wish To Preach, Not The Doctrine Of Ignoble Ease, But The Doctrine Of The Strenuous Life.

There Can Be No Fifty-fifty Americanism In This Country. There Is Room Here For Only 100% Americanism, Only For Those Who Are Americans And Nothing Else

Behind The Ostensible Government Sits Enthroned An Invisible Government Owing No Allegiance And Acknowledging No Responsibility To The People. To Destroy This Invisible Government, To Befoul The Unholy Alliance Between Corrupt Business And Corrupt Politics Is The First Task Of The Statesmanship Of Today.

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

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.

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

Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

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.

No Greater Wrong Can Ever Be Done Than To Put A Good Man At The Mercy Of A Bad, While Telling Him Not To Defend Himself Or His Fellows; In No Way Can The Success Of Evil Be Made Surer Or Quicker.

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

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.

To Every Man Who Faces Life With Real Desire To Do His Part In Everything, I Appeal For A Study Of The Bible.

Your Attitude About Who You Are And What You Have Is A Very Little Thing That Makes A Very Big Difference.

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