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

-Theodore Roosevelt

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On The Whole, We

Theodore Roosevelt

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

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Greatest Victory

More From Theodore Roosevelt

No Triumph Of Peace Can Equal The Armed Triumph Of War.

Germany Has Reduced Savagery To A Science, And This Great War For The Victorious Peace Of Justice Must Go On Until The German Cancer Is Cut Clean Out Of The World Body.

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

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

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

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.

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.

It Is A Wicked Thing To Be Neutral Between Right And Wrong.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Argument Weak; Speak Loudly!

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

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

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

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

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.

A Man Who Has Never Gone To School May Steal From A Freight Car; But If He Has A University Education, He May Steal The Whole Railroad.

The Great Man Is Always The Man Of Mighty Effort.

The Best Executive Is One Who Has Sense Enough To Pick Good People To Do What He Wants Done, And Self-restraint Enough To Keep From Meddling With Them While They Do It.

I Do Not Believe There Was Ever A Life More Attractive Than Life On A Cattle Farm.

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.

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.

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

Progressive Taxation

The Dreams Of Golden Glory In The Future Will Not Come True Unless, High Of Heart And Strong Of Hand, By Our Own Mighty Deeds We Make Them Come True.

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 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.

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

From Time To Time, Little Men Will Find Fault With What You Have Done...but They Will Go Down The Stream Like Bubbles, They Will Vanish. But The Work You Have Done Will Remain For The Ages.

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.

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

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.

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

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

No People Is Wholly Civilized Where A Distinction Is Drawn Between Stealing An Office And Stealing A Purse.

The Light Has Gone Out Of My Life.

All Constitutions, Those Of The States No Less Than That Of The Nation, Are Designed, And Must Be Interpreted And Administered So As To Fit Human Rights.

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

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

There Should Be Relentless Exposure Of And Attack Upon Every Evil Practice, Whether In Politics, In Business, Or In Social Life. I Hail As A Benefactor Every Writer Or Speaker, Every Man Who, On The Platform, Or In Book, Magazine Or Newspaper, With Merciless Severity Makes Such Attack, Provided Always That He In His Turn Remembers That The Attack Is Of Use Only If It Is Absolutely Truthful.

We Should Not Forget That It Will Be Just As Important To Our Descendants To Be Prosperous In Their Time As It Is To Us To Be Prosperous In Our Time.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

I Want To See You Shoot The Way You Shout.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

Freedom Means The Supremacy Of Human Rights Everywhere.

Men Can Never Escape Being Governed. Either They Must Govern Themselves Or They Must Submit To Being Governed By Others.

This Country Has Nothing To Fear From The Crooked Man Who Fails. We Put Him In Jail. It Is The Crooked Man Who Succeeds Who Is A Threat To This Country.

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.

Believe You Can Do It And You Are Halfway There

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.

All The Resources We Need Are In The Mind.

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

No Ordinary Work Done By A Man Is Either As Hard Or As Responsible As The Work Of A Woman Who Is Bringing Up A Family Of Small Children; For Upon Her Time And Strength Demands Are Made Not Only Every Hour Of The Day But Often Every Hour Of The Night.

Wild Beasts And Birds Are By Right Not The Property Merely Of The People Today, But The Property Of The Unborn Generations, Whose Belongings We Have No Right To Squander.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There Can Be Nothing In The World More Beautiful Than The Yosemite, The Groves Of The Giant Sequoias And Redwoods, The Canyon Of The Colorado, The Canyon Of The Yellowstone, The Three Tetons; And Our People Should See To It That They Are Preserved For Their Children And Their Children's Children Forever, With Their Majestic Beauty All Unmarred.

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.

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

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.

If There Ever Was A Pursuit Which Stultified Itself By Its Very Conditions, It Is The Pursuit Of Pleasure As The All-sufficing End Of Life. Happiness Cannot Come To Any Man Capable Of Enjoying True Happiness Unless It Comes As The Sequel To Duty Well And Honestly Done. To Do That Duty You Need To Have More Than One Trait. 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.

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

The One Absolute Certain Way To Bring This Nation To Ruin ... Would Be To Permit It To Become A Tangle Of Squabbling Nationalities.

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.

He Who Makes No Mistakes Makes No Progress.

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.

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.

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

To Educate A Man In Mind And Not In Morals Is To Educate A Menace To Society.

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

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.

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

We Sincerely And Earnestly Believe In Peace; But If Peace And Justice Conflict, We Scorn The Man Who Would Not Stand For Justice Though The Whole World Came In Arms Against Him.

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.

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

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.

We Do Not Admire A Man Of Timid Peace.

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.

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

While President, I Have Been President - Emphatically.

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

I Do Not Believe That Any Man Can Adequately Appreciate The World Of To-day Unless He Has Some Knowledge Of -- A Little More Than A Slight Knowledge, Some Feeling For And Of -- The History Of The World Of The Past.

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.

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

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.

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

Society Has No Business To Permit Degenerates To Reproduce Their Kind

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I Don't Think Any President Ever Enjoyed Himself More Than I Did. Moreover, I Don't Think Any Ex-president Ever Enjoyed Himself More.

I Wish That All Americans Would Realize That American Politics Is World Politics.

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.

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

Order Without Liberty And Liberty Without Order Are Equally Destructive.

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.

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

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.

Everyone Loves Justice In The Affairs Of Another.

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

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 Hardest Lessons To Learn Are Those That Are The Most Obvious.

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

Every Reform Movement Has A Lunatic Fringe.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Just As Little Can We Afford To Follow The Doctrinaires Of An Impossible - And Incidentally Of A Highly Undesirable - Social Revolution Which, In Destroying Individual Rights - Including Property Rights - And The Family, Would Destroy The Two Chief Agents In The Advance Of Mankind, And The Two Chief Reasons Why Either The Advance Or The Preservation Of Mankind Is Worthwhile.

Alone Of Human Beings The Good And Wise Mother Stands On A Plane Of Equal Honor With The Bravest Soldier; For She Has Gladly Gone Down To The Brink Of The Chasm Of Darkness To Bring Back The Children In Whose Hands Rests The Future Of The Years.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

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

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.

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

There Are Good Men And Bad Men Of All Nationalities, Creeds And Colors; And If This World Of Ours Is Ever To Become What We Hope Some Day It May Become, It Must Be By The General Recognition That The Man's Heart And Soul, The Man's Worth And Actions, Determine His Standing.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The Bosses Of The Democratic Party And The Bosses Of The Republican Party Alike Have A Closer Grip Than Ever Before On The Party Machines In The States And In The Nation. This Crooked Control Of Both The Old Parties By The Beneficiaries Of Political And Business Privilege Renders It Hopeless To Expect Any Far-reaching And Fundamental Service From Either.

Let Us Live In The Harness, Striving Mightily.

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

There Is A Delight In The Hardy Life Of The Open.

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

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

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.

To Hell With The Constitution When People Want Coal!

The Nation Should Be Ruled By The Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments

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.

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

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.

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.

The Biggest Corporation, Like The Humblest Private Citizen, Must Be Held To Strict Compliance With The Will Of The People As Expressed In The Fundamental Law.

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.

It Is Imperative To Exercise Over Big Business A Control And Supervision Which Is Unnecessary As Regards Small Business. All Business Must Be Conducted Under The Law, And All Business Men, Big Or Little, Must Act Justly. But A Wicked Big Interest Is Necessarily More Dangerous To The Community Than A Wicked Little Interest. 'big Business' In The Past Has Been Responsible For Much Of The Special Privilege Which Must Be Unsparingly Cut Out Of Our National Life.

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

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

I Care Not What Others Think Of What I Do, But I Care Very Much About What I Think Of What I Do! That Is Character!

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.

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

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

Mckinley Has No More Backbone Than A Chocolate Eclair.

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.

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

The Pacifist Is As Surely A Traitor To His Country And To Humanity As Is The Most Brutal Wrongdoer.

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.

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.

Absence And Death Are The Same - Only That In Death There Is No Suffering.

World Suffering

There Are Some Timid Souls That Will Never Know Victory Nor Defeat.

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.

But This Is Predicated Upon The Man's Becoming In Very Fact An American And Nothing But An American. If He Tries To Keep Segregated With Men Of His Own Origin And Separated From The Rest Of America, Then He Isn't Doing His Part As An American. There Can Be No Divided Allegiance Here. . . We Have Room For But 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; And We Have Room For But One Soul Loyalty, And That Is Loyalty To The American People.

The Very Reason Why We Object To State Ownership, That It Puts A Stop To Individual Initiative And To The Healthy Development Of Personal Responsibility, Is The Reason Why We Object To An Unsupervised, Unchecked Monopolistic Control In Private Hands. We Urge Control And Supervision By The Nation As An Antidote To The Movement For State Socialism. 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.

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.

At Sometime In Our Lives A Devil Dwells Within Us, Causes Heartbreaks, Confusion And Troubles, Then Dies.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Wide Differences Of Opinion In Matters Of Religious, Political, And Social Belief Must Exist If Conscience And Intellect Alike Are Not To Be Stunted, If There Is To Be Room For Healthy Growth.

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

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

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Eric Jerome Dickey

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