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The Words Of The Declaration Of Independence, As Given Effect By Washington...are To Be Accepted As Real, And Not As Empty Phrases...that In Very Truth This Is A Government By The People Themselves, That The Constitution Is Theirs, That The Courts Are Theirs, That All The Government Agents And Agencies Are Theirs... It Is For The People Themselves Finally To Decide All Questions Of Public Policy And To Have Their Decision Made Effective...we Here, In America, Hold In Our Hands The Hope Of The World.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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The Words Of The

Theodore Roosevelt

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The Words Of The Declaration Of Independence, As Given Effect By Washington...are To Be Accepted As Real, And Not As Empty Phrases...that In Very Truth This Is A Government By The People Themselves, That The Constitution Is Theirs, That The Courts Are Theirs, That All The Government Agents And Agencies Are Theirs... It Is For The People Themselves Finally To Decide All Questions Of Public Policy And To Have Their Decision Made Effective...we Here, In America, Hold In Our Hands The Hope Of The World.

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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.

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.

I Am A Man Who Believes With All Fervor And Intensity In Moderate Progress. Too Often Men Who Believe In Moderation Believe In It Only Moderately And Tepidly And Leave Fervor To The Extremists Of The Two Sides - The Extremists Of Reaction And The Extremists Of Progress. Washington, Lincoln . . . Are Men Who, To My Mind, Stand As The Types Of What Wide, Progressive Leadership Should Be.

The Little Owls Call To Each Other With Tremulous, Quavering Voices Throughout The Livelong Night, As They Sit In The Creaking Trees.

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.

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 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.

The Great Body Of Our Citizens Shoot Less As Times Goes On. We Should Encourage Rifle Practice Among Schoolboys, And Indeed Among All Classes, As Well As In The Military Services By Every Means In Our Power. Thus, And Not Otherwise, May We Be Able To Assist In Preserving Peace In The World... The First Step – In The Direction Of Preparation To Avert War If Possible, And To Be Fit For War If It Should Come – Is To Teach Men To Shoot!

The Only Man Who Never Makes A Mistake Is The Man Who Never Does Anything.

With Self-discipline, All Things Are Possible

Formal Education

War With Evil; But Show No Spirit Of Malignity Toward The Man Who May Be Responsible For The Evil. Put It Out Of His Power To Do Wrong.

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.

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

The One Thing I Want To Leave My Children Is An Honorable Name.

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

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

Malefactors Of Great Wealth Have Arrogantly Ignored The Public Welfare.

Do Nothing To Mar Its Grandeur ... Keep It For Your Children, Your Children's Children, And All Who Come After You, As The One Great Sight Which Every American Should See.

We Must Diligently Strive To Make Our Young Men Decent, God-fearing, Law-abiding, Honor-loving, Justice-doing And Also Fearless And Strong.

From The Very Beginning Our People Have Markedly Combined Practical Capacity For Affairs With Power Of Devotion To An Ideal. The Lack Of Either Quality Would Have Rendered The Other Of Small Value.

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.

These International Bankers And Rockefeller Standard Oil Interests Control The Majority Of Newspapers And The Columns Of These Papers To Club Into Submission Or Drive Out Of Public Office Officials Who Refuse To Do The Bidding Of The Powerful Corrupt Cliques Which Compose The Invisible Government.

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 Men And Women Who Have The Right Ideals . . . Are Those Who Have The Courage To Strive For The Happiness Which Comes Only With Labor And Effort And Self-sacrifice, And Those Whose Joy In Life Springs In Part From Power Of Work And Sense Of Duty.

It Is True Of The Nation, As Of The Individual, That The Greatest Doer Must Also Be A Great Dreamer.

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.

Just As You Believe You May Have Already Halfway There

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

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

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

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.

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

The Bulk Of Government Is Not Legislation But Administration.

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.

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

There Is Something To Be Said For Government By A Great Aristocracy Which Has Furnished Leaders To The Nation In Peace And War For Generations; Even A Democrat Like Myself Must Admit This.

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

Optimism Is A Good Characteristic, But If Carried To An Excess, It Becomes Foolishness. We Are Prone To Speak Of The Resources Of This Country As Inexhaustible; This Is Not So.

Justice Consists Not In Being Neutral Between Right And Wrong, But Finding Out The Right And Upholding It, Wherever Found, Against The Wrong.

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.

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

Society Has No Business To Permit Degenerates To Reproduce Their Kind

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 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.

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

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.

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

When We Undertake The Impossible, We Often Fail To Do Anything At All.

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.

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.

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.

Some Reformers May Urge That In The Ages Distant Future, Patriotism, Like The Habit Of Monogamous Marriage, Will Become A Needless And Obsolete Virtue; But Just At Present The Man Who Loves Other Countries As Much As He Does His Own Is Quite As Noxious A Member Of Society As The Man Who Loves Other Women As Much As He Loves His Wife. Love Of Country Is An Elemental Virtue, Like Love Of Home.

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

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

Unless The Man Is Master Of His Soul All Other Kinds Of Mastery Amount To Little.

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

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

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

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.

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

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 Weakling And The Coward Are Out Of Place In A Strong And Free Community. In A Republic Like Ours The Governing Class Is Composed Of The Strong Men Who Take The Trouble To Do The Work Of Government; And If You Are Too Timid Or Too Fastidious Or Too Careless To Do Your Part In This Work, Then You Forfeit Your Right To Be Considered One Of The Governing And You Become One Of The Governed Insteadone Of The Driven Cattle Of The Political Arena.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Greatest Privilege And Greatest Duty For Any Man Is To Be Happily Married, And No Other Form Of Success Or Service, For Either Man Or Woman, Can Be Wisely Accepted As A Substitute Or Alternative

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.

I Do. That Is Character!

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

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.

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.

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

The 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.

Laws Are Essential Emanations From The Self-poised Character Of God; They Radiate From The Sun To The Circling Edge Of Creation. Verily, The Mighty Lawgiver Hath Subjected Himself Unto Laws.

Weasel Words From Mollycoddles Will Never Do When The Day Demands Prophetic Clarity From Greathearts. Manly Men Must Emerge For This Hour Of Trial.

We Here In America, Hold In Our Hands The Hope Of The World, The Fate Of The Coming Years; And Shame And Disgrace Will Be Ours If In Our Eyes The Light Of High Resolve Is Dimmed, If We Trail In The Dust The Golden Hopes Of Men.

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

Constructive Change Offers The Best Method For Avoiding Destructive Change.

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

The Worst Of All Fears Is The Fear Of Living

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

The Armenian Massacre Was The Greatest Crime Of The War.

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

No Greater Wrong Can Ever Be Done Than To Put A Good Man At The Mercy Of A Bad, While Telling Him Not To Defend Himself Or His Fellows; In No Way Can The Success Of Evil Be Made Surer Or Quicker.

There 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.

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.

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.

In Life, As In Football, The Principle To Follow Is To Hit The Line Hard.

Now, It Is Very Necessary That We Should Not Flinch From Seeing What Is Vile And Debasing. There Is Filth On The Floor, And It Must Be Scraped Up With The Muck Rake; And There Are Times And Places Where This Service Is The Most Needed Of All The Services That Can Be Performed. But The Man Who Never Does Anything Else, Who Never Thinks Or Speaks Or Writes, Save Of His Feats With The Muck Rake, Speedily Becomes, Not A Help But One Of The Most Potent Forces For Evil.

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

'liar' Is Just As Ugly A Word As 'thief,' Because It Implies The Presence Of Just As Ugly A Sin In One Case As In The Other. If A Man Lies Under Oath Or Procures The Lie Of Another Under Oath, If He Perjures Himself Or Suborns Perjury, He Is Guilty Under The Statute Law.

I Am Delighted To Have You Play Football. I Believe In Rough, Manly Sports. But I Do Not Believe In Them If They Degenerate Into The Sole End Of Any One's Existence. I Don't Want You To Sacrifice Standing Well In Your Studies To Any Over-athleticism; And I Need Not Tell You That Character Counts For A Great Deal More Than Either Intellect Or Body In Winning Success In Life. Athletic Proficiency Is A Mighty Good Servant, And Like So Many Other Good Servants, A Mighty Bad Master.

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

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

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.

If We Would Have Our Citizens Contented And Law-abiding, We Must Not Sow The Seeds Of Discontent In Childhood By Denying Children Their Birthright Of Play.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Whatever It Is, Handle It So That Your Children's Children Will Get The Benefit Of It.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

While President, I Have Been President - Emphatically.

The Joy Of Living Is His Who Has The Heart To Demand It. Life Is A Great Adventure, And I Want To Say To You, Accept It In Such A Spirit.

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 Country's Honor Must Be Upheld At Home And Abroad.

Let Us Remember That, As Much Has Been Given Us, Much Will Be Expected From Us, And That True Homage Comes From The Heart As Well As From The Lips, And Shows Itself In Deeds.

... 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.

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

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.

In Speaking To You Men Of The Greatest City Of The West, Men Of The State Which Gave To The Country Lincoln And Grant, Men Who Preeminently And Distinctly Embody All That Is Most American In The American Character, I Wish To Preach Not The Doctrine Of Ignoble Ease, But The Doctrine Of The Strenuous Life.

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.

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection. I Recognize The Right And Duty Of This Generation To Develop And Use The Natural Resources Of Our Land; But I Do Not Recognize The Right To Waste Them, Or To Rob, By Wasteful Use, The Generations That Come After Us.

In The History Of Mankind Many Republics Have Risen, Have Flourished For A Less Or Greater Time, And Then Have Fallen Because Their Citizens Lost The Power Of Governing Themselves And Thereby Of Governing Their State; And In No Way Has This Loss Of Power Been So Often And So Clearly Shown As In The Tendency To Turn The Government Into A Government Primarily For The Benefit Of One Class Instead Of A Government For The Benefit Of The People As A Whole.

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.

Ruin Looks Us In The Face If We Judge A Man By His Position Instead Of Judging Him By His Conduct In That Position.

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.

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.

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.

There Should Be At Least Ten Times The Number Of Rifles In The Country As There Are Now.

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.

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

The Man Who Holds That Every Human Right Is Secondary To His Profit Must Now Give Way To The Advocate Of Human Welfare.

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

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

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.

Everything Is Un-american That Tends Either To Government By A Plutocracy Or Government By A Mob. To Divide Along The Lines Of Section Or Caste Or Creed Is Un-american. All Privileges Based On Wealth, And All Enmity To Honest Men Merely Because They Are Wealthy, Are Un-american-both Of Them Equally So. The Things That Will Destroy America Are Prosperity-at-any-price, Peace-at-any-price, Safety-first Instead Of Duty-first, The Love Of Soft Living And The Get-rich-quick Theory Of Life.

The Beauty And Charm Of The Wilderness Are His For The Asking, For The Edges Of The Wilderness Lie Close Beside The Beaten Roads Of The Present Travel.

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

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

The Only Time You Really Live Fully Is From Thirty To Sixty. The Young Are Slaves To Dreams; The Old Servants Of Regrets. Only The Middle-aged Have All Their Five Senses In The Keeping Of Their Wits.

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

The Decisions Of The Courts On Economic And Social Questions Depend On Their Economic And Social Philosophy.

We Have Become Great Because Of The Lavish Use Of Our Resources ... But The Time Has Come To Inquire Seriously What Will Happen When Our Forests Are Gone, When The Coal, The Iron, The Oil And The Gas Are Exhausted.

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.

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.

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

Behind The Ostensible Government Sits Enthroned An Invisible Government Owing No Allegiance And Acknowledging No Responsibility To The People. To Destroy This Invisible Government, To Befoul The Unholy Alliance Between Corrupt Business And Corrupt Politics Is The First Task Of The Statesmanship Of Today.

If I Have Erred, I Err In Company With Abraham Lincoln.

There Are Always In Life Countless Tendencies For Good And For Evil, And Each Succeeding Generation Sees Some Of These Tendencies Strengthened And Some Weakened; Nor Is It By Any Means Always, Alas! That The Tendencies For Evil Are Weakened And Those For Good Strengthened. But During The Last Few Decades There Certainly Have Been Some Notable Changes For Good In Boy Life. The Great Growth In The Love Of Athletic Sports, For Instance, While Fraught With Danger If It Becomes One-sided And Unhealthy, Has Beyond All Question Had An Excellent Effect In Increased Manliness.

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

Conservation And Rural-life Policies Are Really Two Sides Of The Same Policy; And Down At The Bottom This Policy Rests Upon The Fundamental Law That Neither Man Nor Nation Can Prosper Unless, In Dealing With The Present, Thought Is Steadily Given For The Future.

Peace Is Normally A Great Good, And Normally It Coincides With Righteousness, But It Is Righteousness And Not Peace Which Should Bind The Conscience Of A Nation As It Should Bind The Conscience Of An Individual; And Neither A Nation Nor An Individual Can Surrender Conscience To Another's Keeping.

The Things That Will Destroy America Are Prosperity-at-any-price, Peace-at-any-price, Safety-first Instead Of Duty-first, The Love Of Soft Living, And The Get-rich-quick Theory Of Life.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Let Us Live In The Harness, Striving Mightily.

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 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.

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

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.

Then Get Busy And Find Out How To Do It.

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

Speak Softly, I'm Getting My Massage.

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.

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

A Just War Is In The Long Run Far Better For A Man's Soul Than The Most Prosperous Peace.

Rattlesnakes Are Only Too Plentiful Everywhere; Along The River Bottoms, In The Broken, Hilly Ground, And On The Prairies And The Great Desert Wastes Alike...if It Can It Will Get Out Of The Way, And Only Coils Up In Its Attitude Of Defence When It Believes That It Is Actually Menaced.

The Nation Should Be Ruled By The Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments

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.

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.

Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

No Other President Ever Enjoyed The Presidency As I Did.

We Shall Make Mistakes; And If We Let These Mistakes Frighten Us From Our Work We Shall Show Ourselves Weaklings.

Making Mistakes

The Mother Is The One Supreme Asset Of National Life; She Is More Important By Far Than The Successful Statesman, Or Business Man, Or Artist, Or Scientist.

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

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

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

The Vice Of Envy Is Not Only A Dangerous, But A Mean Vice; For It Is Always A Confession Of Inferiority. It May Promote Conduct Which Will Be Fruitful Of Wrong To Others, And It Must Cause Misery To The Man Who Feels It.

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

The Extermination Of The Buffalo Has Been A Veritable Tragedy Of The Animal World.

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

Most Of Us Tiptoe Through Life In Order To Make It Safely To Death.

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

Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

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

I Hate A Man Who Skins The Land.

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

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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