Background Image

...

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.

-Theodore Roosevelt

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Rarely Has Any People

Theodore Roosevelt

...

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.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Theodore Roosevelt

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

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.

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.

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

Mckinley Has No More Backbone Than A Chocolate Eclair.

...let Men Express The Intense Admiration, Which I Share With All Other Americans, Of The Record Made By The Marines.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

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.

The Only Tyrannies From Which Men, Women And Children Are Suffering In Real Life Are The Tyrannies Of Minorities.

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.

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.

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

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.

If Elected, I Shall See To It That Every Man Has A Square Deal, No Less And No More.

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

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.

It Is A Great Mistake To Think That The Extremist Is A Better Man Than The Moderate. Usually The Difference Is Not That He Is Morally Stronger, But That He Is Intellectually Weaker. He Is Not More Virtuous. He Is Simply More Foolish.

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.

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.

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

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.

There Are No Words That Can Tell The Hidden Spirit Of The Wilderness, That Can Reveal Its Mystery, Its Melancholy And Its Charm.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

... The Armenian Massacre Was The Greatest Crime Of The War, And The Failure To Act Against Turkey Is To Condone It ... The Failure To Deal Radically With The Turkish Horror Means That All Talk Of Guaranteeing The Future Peace Of The World Is Mischievous Nonsense.

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

The Object Of Government Is The Welfare Of The People.

The Best Lesson That Any People Can Learn Is That There Is No Patent Cure-all Which Will Make The Body Politic Perfect, And That Any Man Who Is Able Glibly To Answer Every Question As To How To Deal With The Evils Of The Body Politic Is At Best A Foolish Visionary And At Worst An Evil-minded Quack.

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.

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

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.

Life Brings Sorrows And Joys Alike. It Is What A Man Does With Them - Not What They Do To Him - That Is The True Test Of His Mettle.

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

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

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

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

Cowardice In A Race, As In An Individual, Is The Unpardonable Sin.

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.

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.

Yes, Haven, Most Of Us Enjoy Preaching, And Ive Got Such A Bully Pulpit!

We Stand At Armageddon And We Battle For The Lord.

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.

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

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.

Black Care Rarely Sits Behind The Rider Whose Pace Is Fast Enough.

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

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.

The Wildlife And Its Habitat Cannot Speak, So We Must And We Will.

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.

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

In The Grand Canyon, Arizona Has A Natural Wonder Which Is In Kind Absolutely Unparalleled Throughout The Rest Of The World.

Natural Wonders

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

I Want To See You Shoot The Way You Shout.

Each Child Represents Either A Potential Addition To The Protective Capacity And Enlightened Citizenship Of The Nation Or, If Allowed To Suffer From Neglect, A Potential Addition To The Destructive Forces Of A Community. . . . The Interests Of The Nation Are Involved In The Welfare Of This Array Of Children No Less Than In Our Great Material Affairs.

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.

Everyone Loves Justice In The Affairs Of Another.

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.

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

The Highest Form Of Success Comes 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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 Wise And Honorable And Christian Thing To Do Is To Treat Each Black Man And Each White Man (or Any Person) On His Merits As A Man, Giving Him No More And No Less Than He Is Worthy To Have.

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.

Among The Wise And High-minded People Who In Self-respecting And Genuine Fashion Strive Earnestly For Peace, There Are The Foolish Fanatics Always To Be Found In Such A Movement And Always Discrediting It The Men Who Form The Lunatic Fringe In All Reform Movements.

Americanism Means The Virtues Of Courage, Honor, Justice, Truth, Sincerity, And Hardihood - The Virtues That Made America.

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

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

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

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

So That His Place Shall Never Be With Those Cold And Timid Souls Who Knew Neither Victory Nor Defeat.

In This Country We Have No Place For Hyphenated Americans.

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

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.

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 Worst Thing I Can Do Is Nothing.

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.

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

In Name We Had The Declaration Of Independence In 1776; But We Gave The Lie By Our Acts To The Words Of The Declaration Of Independence Until 1865; And Words Count For Nothing Except In So Far As They Represent Acts.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

It Is Of Little Use For Us To Pay Lip-loyalty To The Mighty Men Of The Past Unless We Sincerely Endeavor To Apply To The Problems Of The Present Precisely The Qualities Which In Other Crises Enabled The Men Of That Day To Meet Those Crises.

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.

There Are Many Occasions When The Highest Praise One Can Receive Is The Attack Of Some Given Scoundrel.

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

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

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

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

Nothing Is Gained By Debate On Non-debatable Subjects.

Every Person Who Invests In Well-selected Real Estate In A Growing Section Of A Prosperous Community Adopts The Surest And Safest Method Of Becoming Independent, For Real Estate Is The Basis Of Wealth.

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

Every Man Owes Some Of His Time To The Upbuilding Of The Profession To Which He Belongs.

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

I Can No More Explain Why I Like "natural History" Than Why I Like California Canned Peaches; Nor Why I Do Not Care For That Enormous Brand Of Natural History Which Deals With Invertebrates Any More Than Why I Do Not Care For Brandied Peaches. All I Can Say Is That Almost As Soon As I Began To Read At All I Began To Like To Read About The Natural History Of Beasts And Birds And The More Formidable Or Interesting Reptiles And Fishes.

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.

Politeness [is] A Sign Of Dignity, Not Subservience.

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

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.

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

Nothing Worth Having Was Ever Achieved Without Effort.

Fitness Motivational

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.

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

The American People Are Slow To Wrath, But When Their Wrath Is Once Kindled It Burns Like A Consuming Flame.

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

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.

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

Lincoln-sad, Patient, Kindly Lincoln, Who After Bearing Upon His Weary Shoulders For Four Years A Greater Burden Than That Borne By Any Other Man Of The Nineteenth Century Laid Down His Life For The People Whom Living He Had Served As Well-built Upon His Early Study Of The Bible.

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.

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

I Do Not In The Least Object To A Sport Because It Is Rough.

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

Even In Ordinary Times There Are Very Few Of Us Who Do Not See The Problems Of Life As Through A Glass, Darkly; And When The Glass Is Clouded By The Murk Of Furious Popular Passion, The Vision Of The Best And The Bravest Is Dimmed.

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

The Chase Is Among The Best Of All National Pastimes; It Cultivates That Vigorous Manliness For The Lack Of Which In A Nation, As In An Individual, The Possession Of No Other Qualities Can Possibly Atone.

Every Man, Who Parrots The Cry Of ‘stand By The President’ Without Adding The Proviso ‘so Far As He Serves The Republic’ Takes An Attitude As Essentially Unmanly As That Of Any Stuart Royalist Who Championed The Doctrine That The King Could Do No Wrong. No Self-respecting And Intelligent Free Man Could Take Such An Attitude.

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

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

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

While President, I Have Been President - Emphatically.

I Believe That This Republic Will Endure For Many Centuries. If So There Will Doubtless Be Among Its Presidents Protestants And Catholics, And Very Probably At Some Time, Jews. I Have Consistently Tried While President To Act In Relation To My Fellow Americans Of Catholic Faith As I Hope That Any Future President Who Happens To Be Catholic Will Act Towards His Fellow Americans Of Protestant Faith. Had I Followed Any Other Course I Should Have Felt That I Was Unfit To Represent The American People.

Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

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.

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.

... Looked At From The Standpoint Of The Ultimate Result, There Was Little Real Difference To The Indian Whether The Land Was Taken By Treaty Or By War. ... No Treaty Could Be Satisfactory To The Whites, No Treaty Served The Needs Of Humanity And Civilization, Unless It Gave The Land To The Americans As Unreservedly As Any Successful War.

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.

Our Duty To The Whole, Including The Unborn Generations, Bids Us To Restrain An Unprincipled Present-day Minority From Wasting The Heritage Of These Unborn Generations. The Movement For The Conservation Of Wildlife And The Larger Movement For The Conservation Of All Our Natural Resources Are Essentially Democratic In Spirit, Purpose, And Method.

Order Without Liberty And Liberty Without Order Are Equally Destructive.

We Have Room For But One Loyalty, Loyalty To The United States.

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.

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.

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.

The Lunatic Fringe In All Reform Movements.

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.

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

If 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.

Kings And Such Are Just As Funny As Politicians.

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

Americans Learn Only From Catastrophe And Not From Experience.

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

Your Ability Needs Responsibility To Expose Its Possibilities. Do What You Can With What You Have Where You Are.

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.

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

We Wish Peace, But We Wish The Peace Of Justice, The Peace Of Righteousness. We Wish It Because We Think It Is Right And Not Because We Are Afraid.

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.

There Are Those Who Believe That A New Modernity Demands A New Morality. What They Fail To Consider Is The Harsh Reality That There Is No Such Thing As A New Morality. There Is Only One Morality . All Else Is Immorality.

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

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.

The Light Has Gone Out Of My Life.

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.

In Doing Your Work In The Great World, It Is A Safe Plan To Follow A Rule I Once Heard On The Football Field: Don't Flinch, Don't Fall; Hit The Line Hard.

In The Western Hemisphere The Adherence Of The United States To The Monroe Doctrine May Force The United States, However Reluctantly, In Flagrant Cases Of Such Wrong Doing Or Impotence, To The Exercise Of An International Police Power.

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.

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.

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

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!

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 Sons Of All Of Us Will Pay In The Future If We Of The Present Do Not Do Justice In The Present.

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.

I Wish Very Much That The Wrong People Could Be Prevented Entirely From Breeding

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

We Of An Older Generation Can Get Along With What We Have, Though With Growing Hardship; But In Your Full Manhood And Womanhood You Will Want What Nature Once So Bountifully Supplied And Man So Thoughtlessly Destroyed; And Because Of That Want You Will Reproach Us, Not For What We Have Used, But For What We Have Wasted...so Any Nation Which In Its Youth Lives Only For The Day, Reaps Without Sowing, And Consumes Without Husbanding, Must Expect The Penalty Of The Prodigal Whose Labor Could With Difficulty Find Him The Bare Means Of Life.

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

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

There Is No Good Reason Why We Should Fear The Future, But There Is Every Reason Why We Should Face It Seriously, Neither Hiding From Ourselves The Gravity Of The Problems Before Us Nor Fearing To Approach These Problems With The Unbending, Unflinching Purpose To Solve Them Aright.

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

Abraham Lincoln - The Spirit Incarnate Of Those Who Won Victory In The Civil War - Was The True Representative Of This People, Not Only For His Own Generation, But For All Time, Because He Was A Man Among Men.

There Are No Words That Can Tell The Hidden Spirit Of The Wilderness, That Can Reveal Its Mystery, Its Melancholy And Its Charm. There Is A Delight In The Hardy Life Of The Open... Apart From This, Yet Mingled With It, Is The Strong Attraction Of The Silent Places, Of The Large Tropic Moons, And The Splendor Of The New Stars; Where The Wanderer Sees The Awful Glory Of Sunrise And Sunset In The Wide Waste Spaces Of The Earth, Unworn Of Man, And Changed Only By The Slow Change Of The Ages Through Time Everlasting.

Trending Author

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jennifer Aniston

Category