Background Image

...

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.

-Theodore Roosevelt

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Of One Man In

Theodore Roosevelt

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Theodore Roosevelt

I Dream Of Men Who Take The Next Step Instead Of Worrying About The Next Thousand Steps.

Free Speech Exercised Both Individually And Through A Free Press, Is A Necessity In Any Country Where People Are Themselves Free.

With Great Victory Comes Great Sacrifice.

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection. I Recognize The Right And Duty Of This Generation To Develop And Use The Natural Resources Of Our Land; But I Do Not Recognize The Right To Waste Them, Or To Rob, By Wasteful Use, The Generations That Come After Us.

Everyone Loves Justice In The Affairs Of Another.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

It May Be That 'the Voice Of The People Is The Voice Of God' In Fifty One Cases Out Of A Hundred, But In The Remaining Forty Nine It Is Quite As Likely To Be The Voice Of The Devil, Of, What Is Still Worse, The Voice Of A Fool.

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

There Can Be No Divided Allegiance Here. Any Man Who Says He Is An American, But Something Else Also, Isn't An American At All. We Have Room For But One Flag, The American Flag...we Have Room For But One Language Here, And That Is The English Language...and We Have Room For But One Sole Loyalty And That Is A Loyalty To The American People.

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

The Performance Of Duty, And Not An Indulgence In Vapid Ease And Vapid Pleasure, Is All That Makes Life Worth While.

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

Thorough Knowledge

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.

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.

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

Nowhere, Not At Sea, Does A Man Feel More Lonely Than When Riding Over The Far-reaching, Seemingly Never-ending Plains.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Freedom Means The Supremacy Of Human Rights Everywhere.

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

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

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

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.

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

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.

Nothing Worth Having Was Ever Achieved Without Effort.

Fitness Motivational

The Old Parties Are Husks, With No Real Soul Within Either, Divided On Artificial Lines, Boss-ridden And Privilege-controlled, Each A Jumble Of Incongruous Elements, And Neither Daring To Speak Out Wisely And Fearlessly On What Should Be Said On The Vital Issues Of The Day.

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.

I Keep My Good Health By Having A Very Bad Temper, Kept Under Good Control.

Let Us Remember That, As Much Has Been Given Us, Much Will Be Expected From Us, And That True Homage Comes From The Heart As Well As From The Lips, And Shows Itself In Deeds.

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.

In Battle, The Only Bullets That Count Are Those That Hit.

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.

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.

The American People Abhor A Vacuum.

I Never Keep Boys Waiting. It's A Hard Trial For A Boy To Wait.

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

The Longer I Live The More I Think Of The Quality Of Fortitude... Men Who Fall, Pick Themselves Up And Stumble On, Fall Again, And Are Trying To Get Back Up When They Die.

You Can't Choose Your Potential, But You Can Choose To Fulfill It.

It Is Better To Be Faithful Than Famous.

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.

It Is Essential That There Should Be Organization Of Labor. This Is An Era Of Organization. Capital Organizes And Therefore Labor Must Organize.

It Is Well Indeed For Out Land That We Of This Generation Have Learned To Think Nationally.

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.

What A Man Does For Himself, Dies With Him. What A Man Does For His Community Lives Long After He's Gone.

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

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

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.

I Have No Business To Feel Downcast Or Querulous Merely Because When So Much As Been Given Me I Have Not Had Even More.

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.

Freedom Is Not A Gift Which Can Be Enjoyed Save By Those Shown Themselves Worthy Of It.

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.

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.

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

When Great Nations Fear To Expand, Shrink From Expansion, It Is Because Their Greatness Is Coming To An End. Are We, Still In The Prime Of Our Lusty Youth, Still At The Beginning Of Our Glorious Manhood, To Sit Down Among The Outworn People, To Take Our Place With The Weak And The Craven? A Thousand Times No!

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.

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

I Do. That Is 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.

The Wolf Is The Arch Type Of Ravin, The Beast Of Waste And Desolation.

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

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.

The Truth Is That Any Good Modern Rifle Is Good Enough. The Determining Factor Is The Man Behind The Gun.

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

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.

The Settler And Pioneer Have At Bottom Had Justice On Their Side; This Great Continent Could Not Have Been Kept As Nothing But A Game Preserve For Squalid Savages.

The Leader Works In The Open And The Boss In Covert. The Leader Leads, And The Boss Drives.

Outstanding Leaders

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.

From Its Origin To The Present Hour, In All Its Vicissitudes, Masonry Has Been The Steady Unwearing Friend Of Man.

'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.

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.

The Mother Is The One Supreme Asset Of National Life; She Is More Important By Far Than The Successful Statesman, Or Business Man, Or Artist, Or Scientist.

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

Freedom Of Speech

Want More Advice Like This?

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.

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.

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.

The Reason Fat Men Are Good Natured Is They Can Neither Fight Nor Run.

Constructive Change Offers The Best Method For Avoiding Destructive Change.

By Acting As If I Was Not Afraid, I Gradually Ceased To Be Afraid.

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.

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

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.

I Wish To Preach Not The Doctrine Of Ignoble Ease But The Doctrine Of The Strenuous Life; The Life Of Toil And Effort; Of Labour And Strife; To Preach That Highest Form Of Success Which Comes Not To The Man Who Desires Mere Easy Peace But To The Man Who Does Not Shrink From Danger, From Hardship, Or From Bitter Toil, And Who Out Of These Wins The Splendid Ultimate Triumph. A Life Of Ignoble Ease, A Life Of That Peace Which Springs Merely From Lack Either Of Desire Or Of Power To Strive After Great Things, Is As Little Worthy Of A Nation As Of An Individual.

Love Of Peace Is Common Among Weak, Short-sighted, Timid, And Lazy Persons; And On The Other Hand Courage Is Found Among Many Men Of Evil Temper And Bad Character. Neither Quality Shall By Itself Avail. Justice Among The Nations Of Mankind, And The Uplifting Of Humanity, Can Be Brought About Only By Those Strong And Daring Men Who With Wisdom Love Peace, But Who Love Righteousness More Than Peace.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

I Do Not Believe There Ever Was Any Life More Attractive To A Vigorous Young Fellow Than Life On A Cattle Ranch In Those Days. It Was A Fine, Healthy Life, Too; It Taught A Man Self-reliance, Hardihood, And The Value Of Instant Decision...i Enjoyed The Life To The Full.

The Most Successful Politician Is He Who Says What The People Are Thinking Most Often In The Loudest Voice.

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.

Laws Are Essential Emanations From The Self-poised Character Of God; They Radiate From The Sun To The Circling Edge Of Creation. Verily, The Mighty Lawgiver Hath Subjected Himself Unto Laws.

Wild Flowers Should Be Enjoyed Unplucked Where They Grow.

You Cannot Create Prosperity By Law. Sustained Thrift, Industry, Application, Intelligence, Are The Only Things That Ever Do, Or Ever Will, Create Prosperity. But You Can Very Easily Destroy Prosperity By Law.

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

We Draw The Line Against Misconduct, Not Against Wealth.

Kings And Such Are Just As Funny As Politicians.

It's Not Having Been In The Dark House, But Having Left It That Counts.

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

The Vice Of Envy Is Not Only A Dangerous, But A Mean Vice; For It Is Always A Confession Of Inferiority. It May Promote Conduct Which Will Be Fruitful Of Wrong To Others, And It Must Cause Misery To The Man Who Feels It.

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.

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

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.

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.

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts...the Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena.

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.

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.

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

A Revolution Is Sometimes Necessary, But If Revolutions Become Habitual The Country In Which They Take Place Is Going Down-hill

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

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

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.

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

A Healthy State Can Exist Only When The Men And Women Who Make It Up Lead Clean, Vigorous, Healthy Lives; When The Children Are So Trained That They Shall Endeavor, Not To Shirk Difficulties, But To Overcome Them; Not To Seek Ease, But To Know How To Wrest Triumph From Toil And Risk.

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

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

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

The Teachings Of The Bible Are So Interwoven And Entwined With Our Whole Civic And Social Life That It Would Be Literally Impossible For Us To Figure To Ourselves What That Life Would Be If These Teachings Were Removed.

Our Surest Protection Against Assault From Abroad Has Been Not All Our Guards, Gates And Guns, Or Even Our Two Oceans, But Our Essential Goodness As A People. Our Richest Asset Has Been Not Our Material Wealth But Our Values.

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.

I Feel As Fit As A Bull Moose.

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

No Man Can Lead A Public Career Really Worth Leading, No Man Can Act With Rugged Independence In Serious Crises, Nor Strike At Great Abuses, Nor Afford To Make Powerful And Unscrupulous Foes, If He Is Himself Vulnerable In His Private Character.

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

When You Are Asked If You Can Do A Job, Tell 'em, 'certainly I Can!' Then Get Busy And Find Out How To Do It.

Burning Fossil Fuels Is Like Breaking Up The Furniture To Feed The Fireplace Because It's Easier Than Going Out To The Woodpile.

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

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.

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.

We Wish To Control Big Business So As To Secure Among Other Things Good Wages For The Wage-workers And Reasonable Prices For The Consumers. Wherever In Any Business The Prosperity Of The Business Man Is Obtained By Lowering The Wages Of His Workmen And Charging An Excessive Price To The Consumers We Wish To Interfere And Stop Such Practices. We Will Not Submit To That Kind Of Prosperity Any More Than We Will Submit To Prosperity Obtained By Swindling Investors Or Getting Unfair Advantages Over Business Rivals.

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

I Wish To See The Bible Study As Much A Matter Of Course In The Secular Colleges As In The Seminary.

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.

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.

I Always Keep My Weather Eye On The Opposition Of My Seventh House Moon To My First House Mars.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

We Are The Heirs Of The Ages

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.

Thank God For The Iron In The Blood Of Our Fathers

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

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

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!

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy.

Difficult Times

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

Some Men Can Live Up To Their Loftiest Ideals Without Ever Going Higher Than A Basement.

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

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.

The World Wants The Kind Of Men Who Do Not Shrink From Temporary Defeats In Life; But Come Again And Wrestle Triumph From Defeat.

Temporary Defeat

Conservation Is A Great Moral Issue, For It Involves The Patriotic Duty Of Insuring The Safety And Continuance Of The Nation.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

We Will Send Ships And Marines As Soon As Possible For The Protection Of American Life And Property.

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

The Object Of Government Is The Welfare Of The People.

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

There Are Dreadful Moments When Death Comes Very Near Those We Love, Even If For The Time Being It Passes By. But Life Is A Great Adventure, And The Worst Of All Fears Is The Fear Of Living.

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

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

Progressive Taxation

Almost Every Man Who Has By His Life-work Added To The Sum Of Human Achievement Of Which The Race Is Proud, Of Which Our People Are Proud, Almost Every Such Man Has Based His Life-work Largely Upon The Teachings Of The Bible

Mckinley Shows All The Background Of A Chocolate Eclair.

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.

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.

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.

Unless The Man Is Master Of His Soul All Other Kinds Of Mastery Amount To Little.

Trending Author

John Von Neumann

Wernher Von Braun

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Category