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The Men Of Wealth Who Today Are Trying To Prevent The Regulation And Control Of Their Business In The Interest Of The Public By The Proper Government Authorities Will Not Succeed, In My Judgment, In Checking The Progress Of The Movement. But If They Did Succeed They Would Find That They Had Sown The Wind And Would Surely Reap The Whirlwind, For They Would Ultimately Provoke The Violent Excesses Which Accompany A Reform Coming By Convulsion Instead Of By Steady And Natural Growth.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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The Men Of Wealth

Theodore Roosevelt

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The Men Of Wealth Who Today Are Trying To Prevent The Regulation And Control Of Their Business In The Interest Of The Public By The Proper Government Authorities Will Not Succeed, In My Judgment, In Checking The Progress Of The Movement. But If They Did Succeed They Would Find That They Had Sown The Wind And Would Surely Reap The Whirlwind, For They Would Ultimately Provoke The Violent Excesses Which Accompany A Reform Coming By Convulsion Instead Of By Steady And Natural Growth.

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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.

I Believe That There Should Be A Very Much Heavier Progressive Tax On Very Large Incomes, A Tax Which Should Increase In A Very Marked Fashion For The Gigantic Incomes.

It [the Civil War] Was A Heroic Struggle; And, As Is Inevitable With All Such Struggles, It Had Also A Dark And Terrible Side. Very Much Was Done Of Good, And Much Also Of Evil; And, As Was Inevitable In Such A Period Of Revolution, Often The Same Man Did Both Good And Evil. For Our Great Good Fortune As A Nation, We, The People Of The United States As A Whole, Can Now Afford To Forget The Evil, Or, At Least, To Remember It Without Bitterness, And To Fix Our Eyes With Pride Only On The Good That Was Accomplished.

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.

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.

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

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

Any Man Who Tries To Excite Class Hatred, Sectional Hate, Hate Of Creeds, Any Kind Of Hatred In Our Community, Though He May Affect To Do It In The Interest Of The Class He Is Addressing, Is In The Long Run With Absolute Certainly That Class's Own Worst Enemy.

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.

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

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

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

Let The Watchwords Of All Our People Be The Old Familiar Watchwords Of Honesty, Decency, Fair-dealing, And Commonsense."... "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.""the Welfare Of Each Of Us Is Dependent Fundamentally Upon The Welfare Of All Of Us.

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.

From The Greatest To The Smallest, Happiness And Usefulness Are Largely Found In The Same Soul, And The Joy Of Life Is Won In Its Deepest And Truest Sense Only By Those Who Have Not Shirked Life's Burdens.

One Of Our Defects As A Nation Is A Tendency To Use What Have Been Called ''weasel Words.'' When A Weasel Sucks Eggs The Meat Is Sucked Out Of The Egg. If You Use A ''weasel Word'' After Another There Is Nothing Left Of The Other.

What I Am To Be, I Am Becoming.

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

Perhaps The Most Incapable Executive That Ever Filled The Presidential Chair...it Would Be Difficult To Imagine A Man Less Fit To Guide The State With Honor And Safety Through The Stormy Times That Marked The Opening Of The Present Century.

The First Requisite Of A Good Citizen In This Republic Of Ours Is That He Shall Be Able And Willing To Pull His Own Weight.

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

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

Materially We Must Strive To Secure A Broader Economic Opportunity For All Men, So That Each Shall Have A Better Chance To Show The Stuff Of Which He Is Made.

There Is Apt To Be A Lunatic Fringe Among The Votaries Of Any Forward Movement.

Forward Movement

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

Hardness Of Heart Is A Dreadful Quality, But It Is Doubtful Whether In The Long Run It Works More Damage Than Softness Of Head.

No Other President Ever Enjoyed The Presidency As I Did.

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 Hate A Man Who Skins The Land.

Personally I Have Never Been Able To Understand Why The Head Of A Big Business, Whether It Be The Nation, The State Or The Army, Or Navy Should Not Desire To Have Very Strong And Positive People Under Him.

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 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.

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.

Much Of The Usefulness Of Any Career Must Lie In The Impress That It Makes Upon, And The Lessons That It Teaches To, The Generations That Come After.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

If A Man Has A Very Decided Character, Has A Strongly Accentuated Career, It Is Normally The Case Of Course That He Makes Ardent Friends And Bitter Enemies.

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

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.

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.

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

The Bad Lands Grade All The Way From Those That Are Almost Rolling In Character To Those That Are So Fantastically Broken In Form And So Bizarre In Color As To Seem Hardly Properly To Belong To This Earth.

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

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

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts

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

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

Behind The Ostensible Government Sits Enthroned An Invisible Government Owing No Allegiance And Acknowledging No Responsibility To The People.

In A Civilized And Cultivated Country, Wild Animals Only Continue To Exist At All When Preserved By Sportsmen.

It's Not The Critic Who Counts.

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.

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

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

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

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

Believe You Can Do It And You Are Halfway There

We Stand At Armageddon And We Battle For The Lord.

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.

The Bulk Of Government Is Not Legislation But Administration.

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

In A Civilized And Cultivated Country Wild Animals Only Continue To Exist At All When Preserved By Sportsmen. The Excellent People Who Protest Against All Hunting, And Consider Sportsmen As Enemies Of Wild Life, Are Ignorant Of The Fact That In Reality The Genuine Sportsman Is By All Odds The Most Important Factor In Keeping The Larger And More Valuable Wild Creatures From Total Extermination.

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.

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

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

We Stand For A Living Wage. Wages Are Subnormal If They Fail To Provide A Living For Those Who Devote Their Time And Energy To Industrial Occupations. The Monetary Equivalent Of A Living Wage Varies According To Local Conditions, But Must Include Enough To Secure The Elements Of A Normal Standard Of Living-a Standard High Enough To Make Morality Possible, To Provide For Education And Recreation, To Care For Immature Members Of The Family, To Maintain The Family During Periods Of Sickness, And To Permit Of Reasonable Saving For Old Age.

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.

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

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

...to Befoul The Unholy Alliance Between Corrupt Business And Corrupt Politics Is The First Task Of The Statesmanship Of The Day.

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.

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.

Every Reform Movement Has A Lunatic Fringe.

The Object Of Government Is The Welfare Of The People. The Material Progress And Prosperity Of A Nation Are Desirable Chiefly So Far As They Lead To The Moral And Material Welfare Of All Good Citizens.

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.

The One Being Abhorrent To The Powers Above The Earth And Under Them Is The Hyphenated American

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.

... 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.

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

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.

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

One Of Our Defects As A Nation Is A Tendency To Use What Have Been Called "weasel Words."

Every Thinking Man, When He Thinks, Realizes That The Teachings Of The Bible Are So Interwoven And Intertwined With Our Whole Civic And Social Life That It Would Be Literally, I Do Not Mean Figuratively, But Literally Impossible For Us To Figure What The Loss Would Be If These Teachings Were Removed. We Would Lose All The Standards By Which We Now Judge Both Public And Private Morals; All The Standards Toward Which We, With More Or Less Resolution, Strive To Raise Ourselves.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

All Contributions By Corporations To Any Political Committee Or For Any Political Purpose Should Be Forbidden By Law

No Man Is Worth His Salt Who Is Not Ready At All Times To Risk His Well-being, To Risk His Body, To Risk His Life, In A Great Cause.

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

In A Crisis, The Man Worth His Salt Is The Man Who Meets The Needs Of The Situation In Whatever Way Is Necessary.

I Highly Venerate The Masonic Institution, Under The Fullest Persuasion That, When Its Principles Are Acknowledged And Its Laws And Precepts Obeyed, It Comes Nearest To The Christian Religion, In Its Moral Effects And Influence, Of Any Institution With Which I Am Acquainted.

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

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

There Is A Point, Of Course, Where A Man Must Take The Isolated Peak And Break With All His Associates For Clear Principle; But Until That Time Comes He Must Work, If He Would Be Of Use, With Men As They Are. As Long As The Good In Them Overbalances The Evil, Let Him Work With Them For The Best That Can Be Obtained.

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

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

A Healthy-minded Boy Should Feel Hearty Contempt For The Coward And Even More Hearty Indignation For The Boy Who Bullies Girls Or Small Boys, Or Tortures Animals.

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

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.

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

Outstanding Leaders

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.

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.

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

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.

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

The Country Is The Place For Children, And If Not The Country, A City Small Enough So That One Can Get Out Into The Country.

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

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.

To Hell With The Constitution When People Want Coal!

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

I Think We Are Warranted In Contending That A Society Thus Constituted, And Which May Be Rendered So Admirable An Engine Of Improvement, Far From Meriting Reproach, Deserves Highly Of The Community.

Malefactors Of Great Wealth Have Arrogantly Ignored The Public Welfare.

It Is Time For Us Now As A Nation To Exercise The Same Reasonable Foresight In Dealing With Our Great Natural Resources That Would Be Shown By Any Prudent Man In Conserving And Widely Using The Property Which Contains The Assurance Of Well-being For Himself And His Children.

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

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

There Is Quite Enough Sorrow And Shame And Suffering And Baseness In Real Life, And There Is No Need For Meeting It Unnecessarily In Fiction.

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.

The First Duty Of An American Citizen, Then, Is That He Shall Work In Politics.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Certain Rich Men, Whose Lives Are Evil And Corrupt, Are The Representatives Of Predatory Wealth Accumulated By All Forms Of Inequity, From The Oppression Of Wage Workers To Unfair Methods Of Crushing Out Competition.

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

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

I Am A Part Of Everything That I Have Read.

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.

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.

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.

The Man Who Does Not Think It Was America's Duty To Fight For Her Own Sake In View Of The Infamous Conduct Of Germany Toward Us Stands On A Level With A Man Who Wouldn't Think It Necessary To Fight In A Private Quarrel Because His Wife's Face Was Slapped.

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

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

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

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.

Don't Spread Patriotism Too Thin.

... 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.

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.

Life Is A Great Adventure…accept It In Such A Spirit.

Nine Tenths Of Wisdom Consists In Being Wise In Time.

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.

Toward All Other Nations, Large And Small, Our Attitude Must Be One Of Cordial And Sincere Friendship. We Must Show Not Only In Our Words, But In Our Deeds, That We Are Earnestly Desirous Of Securing Their Good Will By Acting Toward Them In A Spirit Of Just And Generous Recognition Of All Their Rights.

There Are Rainy Days In Autumn And Stormy Days In Winter When The Rocking Chair In Front Of The Fire Simply Demands An Accompanying Book.

The Labor Unions Shall Have A Square Deal, And The Corporations Shall Have A Square Deal, And In Addition, All Private Citizens Shall Have A Square Deal.

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

Second Amendment

A Really Great People, Proud And High Spirited, Would Face All The Disasters Of War Rather Than Purchase That Base Prosperity Which Is Bought At The Price Of National Honor.

The White House Is A Bully Pulpit.

No Great Intellectual Thing Was Ever Done By Great Effort.

The American People Abhor A Vacuum.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

Such An Experiment Without Actual Conditions Of War To Support It Is A Foolish Waste Of Time. . . . I Once Saw A Man Kill A Lion With A 30-30 Caliber Rifle Under Certain Conditions, But That Doesn't Mean That A 30-30 Rifle Is A Lion Gun.

The Man Of Great Wealth Owes A Peculiar Obligation To The State Because He Derives Special Advantages From The Mere Existence Of Government.

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 The Resources We Need Are In The Mind.

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.

It Is Only Through Labor And Painful Effort, By Grim Energy And Resolute Courage, That We Move On To Better Things.

The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena; Whose Face Is Marred With Dust And Sweat; Who Strives Valiantly; Who Errs And May Fall Again And Again, Because There Is No Effort Without Error Or Shortcoming.

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

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

Every Special Interest Is Entitled To Justice - Full, Fair, And Complete... But Not One Is Entitled To A Vote In Congress, To A Voice On The Bench, Or To Representation In Any Public Office.

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

Mother Went Off For Three Days To New York And Mame And Quentin Took Instant Advantage Of Her Absence To Fall Sick. Quentin's Sickness Was Surely Due To A Riot In Candy And Ice-cream With Chocolate Sauce.

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

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

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.

No Man Who Is Corrupt, No Man Who Condones Corruption In Others, Can Possibly Do His Duty By The Community.

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.

Of All Forms Of Tyranny The Least Attractive And The Most Vulgar Is The Tyranny Of Mere Wealth.

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.

While The Nation That Has Dared To Be Great, That Has Had The Will And The Power To Change The Destiny Of The Ages, In The End Must Die, Yet No Less Surely The Nation That Has Played The Part Of The Weakling Must Also Die; And Whereas The Nation That Has Done Nothing Leaves Nothing Behind It, The Nation That Has Done A Great Work Really Continues, Though In Changed Form, To Live Forevermore.

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.

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.

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 One Characteristic More Essential Than Any Other Is Foresight... It Should Be The Growing Nation With A Future Which Takes The Long Look Ahead.

The Armenian Massacre Was The Greatest Crime Of The War.

Only Those Are Fit To Live Who Do Not Fear To Die And None Are Fit To Die Who Have Shrunk From The Joy Of Life And The Duty Of Life.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Unforgivable Crime Is Soft Hitting. Do Not Hit At All If It Can Be Avoided; But Never Hit Softly.

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

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

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

There Are Two Things That I Want You To Make Up Your Minds To: First, That You Are Going To Have A Good Time As Long As You Live - I Have No Use For The Sour-faced Man - And Next, That You Are Going To Do Something Worthwhile, That You Are Going To Work Hard And Do The Things You Set Out To Do.

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