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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

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Rarely Has Any People

Theodore Roosevelt

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The Reactionary Is Always Willing To Take A Progressive Attitude On Any Issue That Is Dead.

Speak Softly And Carry A Big Stick; You Will Go Far.

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.

It Is Only The Warlike Power Of A Civilized People That Can Give Peace To The World.

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.

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.

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!

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy.

Difficult Times

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

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.

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

My Position As Regards The Monied Interests Can Be Put In A Few Words. In Every Civilized Society Property Rights Must Be Carefully Safeguarded; Ordinarily And In The Great Majority Of Cases, Human Rights And Property Rights Are Fundamentally And In The Long Run, Identical; But When It Clearly Appears That There Is A Real Conflict Between Them, Human Rights Must Have The Upper Hand; For Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

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.

I Shall Ask You To Be As Quiet As Possible. I Don’t Know Whether You Fully Understand That I Have Just Been Shot — But It Takes More Than That To Kill A Bull Moose.

In Any Moment Of Decision, The Best Thing You Can Do Is The Right Thing, The Next Best Thing Is The Wrong Thing, And The Worst Thing You Can Do Is Nothing.

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

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!

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

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

The Dull, Purblind Folly Of The Very Rich Men, Their Greed And Arrogance, And The Corruption In Business And Politics, Have Tended To Produce A Very Unhealthy Condition.

We Cannot Afford To Differ On The Question Of Honesty If We Expect Our Republic Permanently To Endure. Honesty Is Not So Much A Credit As An Absolute Prerequisite To Efficient Service To The Public. Unless A Man Is Honest, We Have No Right To Keep Him In Public Life; It Matters Not How Brilliant His Capacity.

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

We Must Remember Not To Judge Any Public Servant By Any One Act, And Especially Should We Beware Of Attacking The Men Who Are Merely The Occasions And Not The Cause Of Disaster.

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.

Bodily Vigor Is Good, And Vigor Of Intellect Is Even Better, But Far Above Is Character.

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

The Absence Of Effective State, And, Especially, National, Restraint Upon Unfair Money-getting Has Tended To Create A Small Class Of Enormously Wealthy And Economically Powerful Men, Whose Chief Object Is To Hold And Increase Their Power. The Prime Need Is To Change The Conditions Which Enable These Men To Accumulate Power Which Is Not For The General Welfare That They Should Hold Or Exercise. We Grudge No Man A Fortune Which Represents His Own Power And Sagacity, When Exercised With Entire Regard To The Welfare Of His Fellows.

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

It Is Always Better To Be An Original Than An Imitation.

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

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

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.

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.

Believe You Can Do It And You Are Halfway There

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

It Is No Limitation Upon Property Rights Or Freedom Of Contract To Require That When Men Receive From Government The Privilege Of Doing Business Under Corporate Form... They Shall Do So Under Absolutely Truthful Representations... Great Corporations Exist Only Because They Were 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 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.

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

Generous Spirit

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.

The Worst Thing I Can Do Is Nothing.

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

There Is Not In All America A More Dangerous Trait Than The Deification Of Mere Smartness Unaccompanied By Any Sense Of Moral Responsibility.

Don't Spread Patriotism Too Thin.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Under Government Ownership Corruption Can Flourish Just As Rankly As Under Private Ownership.

There Is Nothing Brilliant Or Outstanding In My Record, Except Perhaps This One Thing. I Do The Things I Believe Ought To Be Done. And When I Make Up My Mind To Do A Thing, I Act.

Famous Inspirational

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

There Is No Moral Difference Between Gambling At Cards Or In Lotteries Or On The Race Track And Gambling In The Stock Market. One Method Is Just Pernicious To The Body Politic As The Other Kind.

The Man Who Really Counts In The World Is The Doer, Not The Mere Critic -- The Man Who Actually Does The Work, Even If Roughly And Imperfectly, Not The Man Who Only Talks Or Writes About How It Ought To Be Done.

To Announce There Must Be No Criticism Of The President Or That We Are To Stand With The President, Right Or Wrong, Is Not Only Unpatriotic And Servile, But Is Morally Treasonable To The American Public.

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

To Sit Home, Read One's Favorite Paper, And Scoff At The Misdeeds Of The Men Who Do Things Is Easy, But It Is Markedly Ineffective. It Is What Evil Men Count Upon The Good Men's Doing.

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

Malefactors Of Great Wealth Have Arrogantly Ignored The Public Welfare.

I Am An American; Free Born And Free Bred, Where I Acknowledge No Man As My Superior, Except For His Own Worth, Or As My Inferior, Except For His Own Demerit.

Speak Softly, I'm Getting My Massage.

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.

Is America A Weakling, To Shrink From The Work Of The Great World Powers? No! The Young Giant Of The West Stands On A Continent And Clasps The Crest Of An Ocean In Either Hand. Our Nation, Glorious In Youth And Strength, Looks Into The Future With Eager Eyes And Rejoices As A Strong Man To Run A Race.

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

After Nightfall The Face Of The Country Seems To Alter Marvelously, And The Clear Moonlight Only Intensifies The Change. The River Gleams Like Running Quicksilver, And The Moonbeams Play Over The Grassy Stretches Of The Plateaus...the Bad Lands Seem To Be Stranger And Wilder Than Ever, The Silvery Rays Turning The Country Into A Kind Of Grim Fairyland.

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

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

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

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

I Regard The Masonic Institution As One Of The Means Ordained By The Supreme Architect To Enable Mankind To Work Out The Problem Of Destiny; To Fight Against, And Overcome, The Weaknesses And Imperfections Of His Nature, And At Last To Attain To That True Life Of Which Death Is The Herald And The Grave The Portal.

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

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

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.

Envy Is As Evil A Thing As Arrogance.

Just As You Believe You May Have Already Halfway There

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.

I Hold That In This Country There Must Be Complete Severance Of Church And State; That Public Moneys Shall Not Be Used For The Purpose Of Advancing Any Particular Creed; And Therefore That The Public Schools Shall Be Nonsectarian And No Public Moneys Appropriated For Sectarian Schools.

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 Entirely Appreciate Loyalty To One"s Friends, But Loyalty To The Cause Of Justice And Honor Stands Above It.

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.

Constructive Change Offers The Best Method For Avoiding Destructive Change.

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

Nothing Worth Having Was Ever Achieved Without Effort.

Fitness Motivational

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

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts; Not The Man Who Points Out How The Strong Man Stumbles, Or Where The Doer Of Deeds Could Have Done Them Better. The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena, Whose Face Is Marred By Dust And Sweat And Blood; Who Strives Valiantly; . . . Who At Best Knows In The End The Triumph Of High Achievement, And Who At Worst, If He Fails, At Least Fails While Daring Greatly.

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.

Nine Tenths Of Wisdom Consists In Being Wise In Time.

If We Put Corrupt Men In Public Office And Sneeringly Acquiesce In Their Corruptions, Then We Are Wrong Ourselves.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 Do. That Is Character!

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

The Bulk Of Government Is Not Legislation But Administration.

A Nation That Still Needs To Distinguish Between Stealing An Election, And Stealing A New Pair Of Shoes, Is Not Completely Civilized Yet.

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.

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.

Each One Must Do His Part If We Wish To Show That The Nation Is Worthy Of Its Good Fortune.

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

The 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 Is No Reason Why People Should Not Call Themselves Cubists, Or Octagonists, Or Parallelopipedonists, Orknights Oftheisoscelestriangle, Or Brothers Of The Cosine, If They So Desire; As Expressing Anything Serious And Permanent, One Term Is As Fatuous As Another.

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.

I Believe In A Graduated Income Tax On Big Fortunes, And In . . . A Graduated Inheritance Tax On Big Fortunes, . . . Increasing Rapidly In Amount With The Size Of The Estate.

Progressive Taxation

No Other President Ever Enjoyed The Presidency As I Did.

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.

Do Not Get Into A Fight If You Can Possibly Avoid It. If You Get In, See It Through. Don't Hit If It Is Honorably Possible To Avoid Hitting, But Never Hit Soft. Don't Hit At All If You Can Help It; Don't Hit A Man If You Can Possibly Avoid It; But If You Do Hit Him, Put Him To Sleep.

There Can Be No Greater Issue Than That Of Conservation In This Country.

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 No Room In This Country For Hyphenated Americanism.

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

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.

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

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

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

All The Resources We Need Are In The Mind.

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.

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

No Nation Deserves To Exist If It Permits Itself To Lose The Stern And Virile Virtues; And This Without Regard To Whether The Loss Is Due To The Growth Of A Heartless And All-absorbing Commercialism, To Prolonged Indulgence In Luxury And Soft, Effortless Ease, Or To The Deification Of A Warped And Twisted Sentimentality.

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.

Ours Is A Government Of Liberty By, Through, And Under The Law. A Great Democracy Must Be Progressive Or It Will Soon Cease To Be Great Or A Democracy.

The Nation Should Be Ruled By The Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments

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

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

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

There Is A Homely Old Adage Which Runs: "speak Softly And Carry A Big Stick; You Will Go Far." If The American Nation Will Speak Softly, And Yet Build And Keep At A Pitch Of The Highest Training A Thoroughly Efficient Navy, The Monroe Doctrine Will Go Far.

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

The Liar Is No Whit Better Than The Thief, And If His Mendacity Takes The Form Of Slander He May Be Worse Than Most Thieves. It Puts A Premium Upon Knavery Untruthfully To Attack An Honest Man, Or Even With Hysterical Exaggeration To Assail A Bad Man With Untruth.

Great Thoughts Speak Only To The Thoughtful Mind, But Great Actions Speak To All Mankind.

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

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

Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

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

Freedom Means The Supremacy Of Human Rights Everywhere.

I Was A Reasonably Good Student In College ... My Chief Interests Were Scientific. When I Entered College, I Was Devoted To Out-of-doors Natural History, And My Ambition Was To Be A Scientific Man Of The Audubon, Or Wilson, Or Baird, Or Coues Type-a Man Like Hart Merriam, Or Frank Chapman, Or Hornaday, To-day.

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

Character Is Far More Important Than Intellect In Making A Man A Good Citizen Or Successful At His Calling- Meaning By Character Not Only Such Qualities As Honesty And Truthfulness, But Courage, Perseverance And Self-reliance.

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

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

I Am Rather More Apt To Read Old Books Than New Ones.

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.

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

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.

In Other Words, Character Is Far More Important Than Intellect To The Race As To The Individual. We Need Intellect, And There Is No Reason Why We Should Not Have It Together With Character; But If We Must Choose Between The Two We Choose Character Without A Moment's Hesitation.

There Must Be No Division By Class Hatred, Whether This Hatred Be That Of Creed Against Creed, Nationality Against Nationality, Section Against Section, Or Men Of One Social Or Industrial Condition Against Men Of Another Social And Industrial Condition. We Must Ever Judge Each Individual On His Own Conduct And Merits, And Not On His Membership In Any Class, Whether That Class Be Based On Theological, Social, Or Industrial Considerations.

To Permit Every Lawless Capitalist, Every Law-defying Corporation, To Take Any Action, No Matter How Iniquitous, In The Effort To Secure An Improper Profit And To Build Up Privilege, Would Be Ruinous To The Republic And Would Mark The Abandonment Of The Effort To Secure In The Industrial World The Spirit Of Democratic Fair Dealing.

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.

There Can Be No Life Without Change, And To Be Afraid Of What Is Different Or Unfamiliar Is To Be Afraid Of Life.

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

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

It May Be That At Some Time In The Dim Future Of The Race The Need For War Will Vanish: But That Time Is Yet Ages Distant. As Yet No Nation Can Hold Its Place In The World, Or Can Do Any Work Really Worth Doing, Unless It Stands Ready To Guard Its Right With An Armed Hand.

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.

And It Is Through Strife And The Readiness For Strife That A Man Or A Nation Must Win Greatness. So, Let The World Know That We Are Here And Willing To Pour Out Our Blood, Our Treasure, Our Tears. And That America Is Ready And If Need Be Desirous Of Battle

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

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

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

If, In Any Individual, University Training Produces A Taste For Refined Idleness, A Distaste For Sustained Effort, A Barren Intellectual Arrogance, Or A Sense Of Superfluous Aloofness From The World Of Real Men Who Do The World's Real Work, Then It Has Harmed That Individual.

Intellectual Arrogance

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.

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.

Yes, My Friend, And If You Will Steal For Me Then You Will Steal From Me.

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.

Let Us Live In The Harness, Striving Mightily.

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

Wherever You Are

I'm As Strong As A Bull Moose And You Can Use Me To The Limit.

There Is Nothing More Practical Than The Preservation Of Beauty, Than The Preservation Of Anything That Appeals To The Higher Emotions Of Mankind

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

The True Friend Of Property, The True Conservative, Is He Who Insists That Property Shall Be The Servant And Not The Master Of The Commonwealth; Who Insists That The Creature Of Man’s Making Shall Be The Servant And Not The Master Of The Man Who Made It. The Citizens Of The United States Must Effectively Control The Mighty Commercial Forces Which They Have Called Into Being. There Can Be No Effective Control Of Corporations While Their Political Activity Remains. To Put An End To It Will Be Neither A Short Nor An Easy Task, But It Can Be Done.

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

Natural Wonders

No President Has Ever Enjoyed Himself As Much As I?

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.

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

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.

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

Second Amendment

Americans Learn Only From Catastrophe And Not From Experience.

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

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.

The Fortunes Amassed Through Corporate Organization Are Now So Large, And Vest Such Power In Those That Wield Them, As To Make It A Matter Of Necessity To Give To The Sovereign - That Is, To The Government, Which Represents The People As A Whole - Some Effective Power Of Supervision Over Their Corporate Use. In Order To Insure A Healthy Social And Industrial Life, Every Big Corporation Should Be Held Responsible By, And Be Accountable To, Some Sovereign Strong Enough To Control Its Conduct.

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.

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

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

Courage Is Not Having The Strength To Go On, It Is Going On When You Don't Have The Strength. Industry And Determination Can Do Anything That Genius And Advantage Can Do And Many Things That They Cannot.

The White House Is A Bully Pulpit.

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

Appraisals Are Where You Get Together With Your Team Leader And Agree What An Outstanding Member Of The Team You Are, How Much Your Contribution Has Been Valued, What Massive Potential You Have And, In Recognition Of All This, Would You Mind Having Your Salary Halved.

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