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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.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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The First Requisite Of

Theodore Roosevelt

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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.

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

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.

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.

The Man Who Loves Other Countries As Much As His Own Stands On A Level With The Man Who Loves Other Women As Much As He Loves His Own Wife.

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

Every Child Has Inside Him An Aching Void For Excitement And If We Don't Fill It With Something Which Is Exciting And Interesting And Good For Him, He Will Fill It With Something Which Is Exciting And Interesting And Which Isn't Good For Him.

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.

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!'

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.

Let Us Live In The Harness, Striving Mightily.

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.

A Small Politician, Of Low Capacity And Mean Surroundings, Proud To Act As The Servile Tool Of Men Worse Than Himself But Also Stronger And Abler.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

My Power Vanishes Into Thin Air The Instant That My Fellow Citizens, Who Are Straight And Honest, Cease To Believe That I Represent Them And Fight For What Is Straight And Honest. That Is All The Strength That I Have.

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.

In This Country We Have No Place For Hyphenated Americans.

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

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.

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.

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

While My Interest In Natural History Has Added Very Little To My Sum Of Achievement, It Has Added Immeasurably To My Sum Of Enjoyment In Life.

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

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.

We Need The Iron Qualities That Go With True Manhood. We Need The Positive Virtues Of Resolution, Of Courage, Of Indomitable Will, Of Power To Do Without Shrinking The Rough Work That Must Always Be Done.

I Cannot Consent To Take The Position That The Door Of Hope - The Door Of Opportunity - Is To Be Shut Upon Any Man, No Matter How Worthy, Purely Upon The Grounds Of Race Or Color. Such An Attitude Would, According To My Convictions, Be Fundamentally Wrong.

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

Generous Spirit

The 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

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

When She (my Mother) Passed Away, I Kind Of Understood The Commitment That She Made To Make Sure That I Could Stay In Skating. And I Wanted To Live Up To Whatever I Could. Not So Much Win Everything, But Just To Be The Best That I Could Possibly Be, To Honor Her Memory And Everything She Went Through To Make Sure That I Was Given The Opportunities To Be The Best That I Can Be. Not To Be A World Champion Or An Olympic Gold Medalist, But To Be The Best That I Could Be. And That Was The Most Important Thing That Ever Happened In My Career.

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.

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

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

The Worst Of All Fears Is The Fear Of Living

Any Political Movement Directed Against Any Body Of Our Fellow-citizens Because Of Their Religious Creed Is A Grave Offense Against American Principles And American Institutions. It Is A Wicked Thing Either To Support Or Oppose A Man Because Of The Creed He Possesses. . . . Such A Movement Directly Contravenes The Spirit Of The Constitution Itself.

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.

If A Strong Man Has Not In Him The Lift Toward Lofty Things, His Strength Makes Him Only A Curse To Himself And His Neighbor.

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

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.

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

Show Me A Man Who Makes No Mistakes, And I Will Show You A Man Who Doesn't Do Things.

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

There Is No Patent Recipe For Getting Good Citizenship. You Get It By Applying The Old, Old Rules Of Decent Conduct, The Rules In Accordance With Which Decent Men Have Had To Shape Their Lives From The Beginning .. Fundamental Precepts, Put Forth In The Bible And Embodied Consciously Or Unconsciously In The Code Of Morals Of Every Great And Successful Nation From Antiquity To Modern Times.

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.

There Can Be No Effective Control Of Corporations While Their Political Activity Remains. To Put An End To It Will Be Neither A Short Nor An Easy Task, But It Can Be Done ... Corporate Expenditures For Political Purposes, And Especially Such Expenditures By Public-service Corporations, Have Supplied One Of The Principal Sources Of Corruption In Our Political Affairs.

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.

War Is Not Merely Justifiable, But Imperative Upon Honorable Men, Upon An Honorable Nation, Where Peace Can Only Be Obtained By The Sacrifice Of Conscientious Conviction Or Of National Welfare.

Unrestrained Greed Means The Ruin Of The Great Woods And The Drying Up Of The Sources Of The Rivers.

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.

Progress Has Brought Us Both Unbounded Opportunities And Unbridled Difficulties. Thus, The Measure Of Our Civilization Will Not Be That We Have Done Much, But What We Have Done With That Much. 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. The Thought Of Modern Industry In The Hands Of Christian Charity Is A Dream Worth Dreaming. The Thought Of Industry In The Hands Of Paganism Is A Nightmare Beyond Imagining. The Choice Between The Two Is Upon Us.

People Ask The Difference Between A Leader And A Boss. The Leader Leads, And The Boss Drives.

Freedom Means The Supremacy Of Human Rights Everywhere.

The Great Man Is Always The Man Of Mighty Effort.

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

Look Toward The Stars But Keep Your Feet Firmly On The Ground.

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

The Worst Thing I Can Do Is Nothing.

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.

Never, Never, You Must Never Either Of You Remind A Man At Work On A Political Job That He May Be President.

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

Willful Sterility Is, From The Standpoint Of The Nation, From The Standpoint Of The Human Race, The One Sin For Which The Penalty Is National Death, Race Death; A Sin For Which There Is No Atonement. No Man, No Woman, Can Shirk The Primary Duties Of Life, Whether For Love Of Ease And Pleasure, Or For Any Other Cause, And Retain His Or Her Self-respect.

The American People Abhor A Vacuum.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

It Tires Me To Talk To Rich Men. You Expect A Man Of Millions, The Head Of A Great Industry, To Be A Man Worthhearing; But As A Rule They Don't Know Anything Outside Their Own Business.

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.

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

No, I'm Not A Good Shot, But I Shoot Often.

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.

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

[among The Books He Chooses, A Statesman] Ought To Read Interesting Books On History And Government, And Books Of Science And Philosophy; And Really Good Books On These Subjects Are As Enthralling As Any Fiction Ever Written In Prose Or Verse.

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.

Our Chief Usefulness To Humanity Rests On Our Combining Power With High Purpose. Power Undirected By High Purpose Spells Calamity, And High Purpose By Itself Is Utterly Useless If The Power To Put It Into Effect Is Lacking.

We Have Duties To Others, And Duties To Ourselves, And We Cannot Shirk Either.

He Who Makes No Mistakes Makes No Progress.

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

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

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.

I Want To See You Shoot The Way You Shout.

An Airedale Can Do Anything Any Other Dog Can Do And Then Whip The Other Dog If He Has To.

A President Has A Great Chance; His Position Is Almost That Of A King And A Prime Minister Rolled Into One. Once He Has Left Office He Cannot Do Very Much; And He Is A Fool If He Fails To Realize It All And To Be Profoundly Thankful For Having Had The Great Chance.

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

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

It Is Not What We Have That Will Make Us A Great Nation; It Is The Way In Which We Use It.

Use It Or Lose It

There Is No Effort Without Error Or Shortcoming.

I Have Now Run Up Against An Ugly Snag, The Sunday Excise Law. It Is Altogether Too Strict, But I Have No Honorable Alternative Save To Enforce It And I Am Enforcing It, To The Furious Rage Of The Saloon Keepers, And Of Many Good People Too; For Which I Am Sorry.

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.

Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

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

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

My Experience...convinced Me That Tea Was Better Than Brandy, And During The Last Six Months In Afica I Took No Brandy, Even When Sick Taking Tea Instead.

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

The Nation Behaves Well If It Treats The Natural Resources As Assets Which It Must Turn Over To The Next Generation Increased; And Not Impaired In Value.

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

Our Flag Is A Proud Flag, And It Stands For Liberty And Civilization. Where It Has Once Floated, There Must Be No Return To Tyranny.

It Is Hard To Fail, But It Is Worse Never To Have Tried To Succeed.

If I Have To Choose Between Peace And Righteousness, I'll Choose Righteousness.

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

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

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.

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

There Is A Delight In The Hardy Life Of The Open. There Are No Words That Can Tell The Hidden Spirit Of The Wilderness, That Can Reveal Its Mystery, Its Melancholy And Its Charm. The Nation Behaves Well If It Treats The Natural Resources As Assets Which It Must Turn Over To The Next Generation Increased; And Not Impaired In Value. Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

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.

Oh, If Only I Could Be President And Congress, Too, Just For Ten Minutes.

Poverty Is A Bitter Thing; But It Is Not As Bitter As The Existence Of Restless Vacuity And Physical, Moral, And Intellectual Flabbiness, To Which Those Doom Themselves Who Elect To Spend All Their Years In That Vainest Of All Vain Pursuits-the Pursuit Of Mere Pleasure As A Sufficient End In Itself.

We Face The Future With Our Past And Our Present As Guarantors Of Our Promises; And We Are Content To Stand Or To Fall By The Record Which We Have Made And Are Making.

The Eighth Commandment Reads, "thou Shalt Not Steal." It Does Not Read, "thou Shalt Not Steal From The Rich Man." It Does Not Read, "thou Shalt Not Steal From The Poor Man." It Reads Simply And Plainly, "thou Shalt Not Steal."

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

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.

No President Has Ever Enjoyed Himself As Much As I?

Let Us Rather Run The Risk Of Wearing Out Than Rusting Out.

Just As Lincoln Got Contradictory Advice From The Extremists Of Both Sides . . . So Now I Have To Guard Myself Against The Extremists Of Both Sides.

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

We Have Room But For One Language Here And That Is The English Language, For We Intend To See That The Crucible Turns Our People Out As Americans Of American Nationality And Not As Dwellers In A Polyglot Boarding-house.

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

We Despise And Abhor The Bully, The Brawler, The Oppressor, Whether In Private Or Public Life, But We Despise No Less The Coward And The Voluptuary. No Man Is Worth Calling A Man Who Will Not Fight Rather Than Submit To Infamy Or See Those That Are Dear To Him Suffer Wrong.

Every Reform Movement Has A Lunatic Fringe.

Nowadays The Field Naturalist-who Is Usually At All Points Superior To The Mere Closet Naturalist-follows A Profession As Full Of Hazard And Interest As That Of The Explorer Or Of The Big-game Hunter In The Remote Wilderness.

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.

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.

You, The Sons Of The Pioneers, If You Are True To Your Ancestry, Must Make Your Lives As Worthy As They Made Theirs. They Sought For True Success, And Therefore They Did Not Seek Ease. They Knew That Success Comes Only To Those Who Lead The Life Of Endeavor

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

Society Has No Business To Permit Degenerates To Reproduce Their Kind

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.

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 Party Belongs To The Millions Of The Rank And File. It Does Not Belong To The Handful Of Politicians Who Have Assumed Fraudulently To Upset The Will Of The Rank And File. The Action Of These Men Is In No Sense "regular," As They Claim It To Be.... Theft And Dishonesty Cannot Give And Never Shall Give A Title To Regularity.

The Only Trouble With The Movement For The Preservation Of Our Forests Is That It Has Not Gone Nearly Far Enough, And Was Not Begun Soon Enough.

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

The Good Citizen Will Demand Liberty For Himself, And As A Matter Of Pride He Will See To It That Others Receive The Liberty Which He Thus Claims As His Own. Probably The Best Test Of True Love Of Liberty In Any Country Is The Way In Which Minorities Are Treated In That Country. Not Only Should There Be Complete Liberty In Matters Of Religion And Opinion, But Complete Liberty For Each Man To Lead His Life As He Desires, Provided Only That In So Doing He Does Not Wrong His Neighbor.

If An American Is To Amount To Anything He Must Rely Upon Himself, And Not Upon The State; He Must Take Pride In His Own Work, Instead Of Sitting Idle To Envy The Luck Of Others. He Must Face Life With Resolute Courage, Win Victory If He Can, And Accept Defeat If He Must, Without Seeking To Place On His Fellow Man A Responsibility Which Is Not Theirs.

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

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

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

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.

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

The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena..who Errs, Who Comes Short Again And Again; But Who Does Actually Strive To Do The Deeds; Who Spends Himself In A Worthy Cause.

The Boy Who Is Going To Make A Great Man Must Not Make Up His Mind Merely To Overcome A Thousand Obstacles, But To Win In Spite Of A Thousand Repulses And Defeats.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

No Man Can Do Both Effective And Decent Work In Public Life Unless He Is A Practical Politician On The One Hand, And A Sturdy Believer In Sunday-school Politics On The Other. He Must Always Strive Manfully For The Best, And Yet, Like Abraham Lincoln, Must Often Resign Himself To Accept The Best Possible.

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.

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

Performance Should Be Made Square With Promise.

If A Man Continually Blusters, If He Lacks Civility, A Big Stick Will Not Save Him From Trouble, And Neither Will Speaking Softly Avail, If Back Of The Softness There Does Not Lie Strength, Power.

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

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

The Bulk Of Government Is Not Legislation But Administration.

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

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.

I Believe In Corporations. They Are Indispensable Instruments Of Our Modern Civilization. But I Believe They Should Be So Regulated That They Shall Act For The Interests Of The Community As A Whole.

Success, The Real Success, Does Not Depend Upon The Position You Hold But Upon How You Carry Yourself In That Position.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Civilized People Of Today Look Back With Horror At Their Medieval Ancestors Who Wantonly Destroyed Great Works Of Art Or Sat Slothfully By While They Destroyed. We Have Passed This Stage.... Here In The U.s. We Turn Our Rivers And Streams Into Sewers And Dumping Grounds, We Pollute The Air, We Destroy Our Forests And Exterminate Fishes, Birds And Mammals - Not To Speak Of Vulgarizing Charming Landscapes With Hideous Advertisements. But At Best It Looks As If Our People Were Awakening.

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

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.

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

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.

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

The Farmer Is A Poor Creature Who Skins The Land And Leaves It Worthless To His Children. The Farmer Is A Good Farmer Who, Having Enabled The Land To Support Himself And To Provide For The Education Of His Children, Leaves It To Them A Little Better Than He Found It Himself.

The Woman Has The Right To Be Emancipated From The Position Of A Drudge Or A Toy. She Is Entitled To A Full Equality In Rights With Man.

Just As You Believe You May Have Already Halfway There

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

Freedom Of Speech

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.

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

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

Life Is As If You Were Traveling A Ridge Crest. You Have The Gulf Of Inefficiency On One Side And The Gulf Of Wickedness On The Other, And It Helps Not To Have Avoided One Gulf If You Fall Into The Other.

Conservation Of Our Resources Is The Fundamental Question Before This Nation, And That Our First And Greatest Task Is To Set Our House In Order And Begin To Live Within Our Means.

There Is Need Of A Sound Body, And Even More Need Of A Sound Mind. But Above Mind And Above Body Stands Character-the Sum Of Those Qualities Which We Mean When We Speak Of A Man's Force And Courage, Of His Good Faith And Sense Of Honor.

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

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.

Short-sighted Men Who In Their Greed And Selfishness Will, If Permitted, Rob Our Country Of Half Its Charm By Their Reckless Extermination Of All Useful And Beautiful Wild Things.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Human Body Has Two Ends On It: One To Create With And One To Sit On. Sometimes People Get Their Ends Reversed. When This Happens They Need A Kick In The Seat Of The Pants.

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

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

I Ask Of Each Mason, Of Each Member, Of Each Brother, That He Shall Remember Ever That There Is Upon Him A Peculiar Obligation To Show Himself In Every Respect A Good Citizen; For After All, The Way He Can Best Do His Duty By The Ancient Order To Which He Belongs Is By Reflecting Credit Upon That Order By Way In Which He Performs His Duty As A Citizen Of The United States.

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George S. Kaufman

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