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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!

-Theodore Roosevelt

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When Great Nations Fear

Theodore Roosevelt

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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!

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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.

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

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 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.

Then Get Busy And Find Out How To Do It.

Job Opportunities

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

Don't Spread Patriotism Too Thin.

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.

In Foreign Affairs We Must Make Up Our Minds That Whether We Wish It Or Not, We Are A Great People And Must Play A Great Part In The World. It Is Not Open To Us To Choose Whether We Will Play That Great Part Or Not.

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

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.

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

All Daring And Courage, All Iron Endurance Of Misfortune-make For A Finer, Nobler Type Of Manhood.

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

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

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

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy.

Difficult Times

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

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

I Enter A Most Earnest Plea That In Our Hurried And Rather Bustling Life Of Today We Do Not Lose The Hold That Our Forefathers Had On The Bible. I Wish To See The Bible Study As Much A Matter Of Course In The Secular Colleges As In The Seminary. No Educated Man Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible, And No Uneducated Man Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible.

The Mass Of The American People Are Most Emphatically Not In The Deplorable Condition Of Which You Speak.

It's Not The Critic Who Counts, Nor The Man Who Points Out How The Strong Man Stumbles, Or Where The Doer Of The Deeds Could Have Done Better.

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

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.

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

Each Man Must Work For Himself, And Unless He So Works, No Outside Help Can Avail Him.

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

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

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

I Hate A Man Who Skins The Land.

Get Action. Seize The Moment. Man Was Never Intended To Become An Oyster.

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.

Never Throughout History Has A Man Who Lived A Life Of Ease Left A Name Worth Remembering.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

The Forces That Tend For Evil Are Great And Terrible, But The Forces Of Truth And Love And Courage And Honesty And Generosity And Sympathy Are Also Stronger Than Ever Before.

My Hat Is In The Ring.

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I Do Not Dislike But I Certainly Have No Especial Respect Or Admiration For And No Trust In, The Typical Big Moneyed Men Of My Country. I Do Not Regard Them As Furnishing Sound Opinion As Respects Either Foreign Or Domestic Business.

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.

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

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

[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.

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.

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.

Councils Of War Never Fight.

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.

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

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

Those Who Oppose All Reform Will Do Well To Remember That Ruin In Its Worst Form Is Inevitable If Our National Life Brings Us Nothing Better Than Swollen Fortunes For The Few And The Triumph In Both Politics And Business Of A Sordid And Selfish Materialism.

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.

It May Be That 'the Voice Of The People Is The Voice Of God' In Fifty One Cases Out Of A Hundred, But In The Remaining Forty Nine It Is Quite As Likely To Be The Voice Of The Devil, Of, What Is Still Worse, The Voice Of A Fool.

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

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

Making Mistakes

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

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

Malefactors Of Great Wealth Have Arrogantly Ignored The Public Welfare.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

If We Lose The Virile, Manly Qualities, And Sink Into A Nation Of Mere Hucksters, Putting Gain Over National Honor, And Subordinating Everything To Mere Ease Of Life, Then We Shall Indeed Reach A Condition Worse Than That Of The Ancient Civilizations In The Years Of Their Decay.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

After The War, And Until The Day Of His Death, His Position On Almost Every Public Question Was Either Mischievous Or Ridiculous, And Usually Both.

We Cannot Afford Merely To Sit Down And Deplore The Evils Of City Life As Inevitable, When Cities Are Constantly Growing, Both Absolutely And Relatively. We Must Set Ourselves Vigorously About The Task Of Improving Them; And This Task Is Now Well Begun.

When You Play, Play Hard; When You Work, Don't Play At All.

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

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

No Man Should Receive A Dollar Unless That Dollar Has Been Fairly Earned.

Progressive Taxation

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.

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

A Party Should Not Contain Utterly Incongruous Elements, Radically Divided On The Real Issues, And Acting Together Only On False And Dead Issues Insincerely Painted As Real And Vital. It Should Not In The Several States As Well As In The Nation Be Prostituted To The Service Of The Baser Type Of Political Boss. It Should Be So Composed That There Should Be A Reasonable Agreement In The Actions Taken By It Both In The Nation And In The Several States. Judged By These Standards, Both Of The Old Parties Break Down.

The Modern Naturalist Must Realize That In Some Of Its Branches His Profession, While More Than Ever A Science, Has Also Become An Art.

If There Is One Thing For Which We Stand In This Country, It Is For Complete Religious Freedom, And It Is An Emphatic Negation Of This Right To Cross-examine A Man On His Religion Before Being Willing To Support Him For Office.

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

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts

It Is Well Indeed For Out Land That We Of This Generation Have Learned To Think Nationally.

It Is Better To Be Faithful Than Famous.

The Name Roosevelt Has This Legendary Force In Our Country At This Time.

The Biggest Corporation, Like The Humblest Private Citizen, Must Be Held To Strict Compliance With The Will Of The People As Expressed In The Fundamental Law.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

We Must All Either Wear Out Or Rust Out, Every One Of Us. My Choice Is To Wear Out.

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

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.

I Violate No Secret When I Say That One Of The Greatest Values In Masonry Is That It Affords An Opportunity For Men Of All Walks Of Life To Meet On Common Ground Where All Men Are Equal And Have One Common Interest.

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.

The Lunatic Fringe In All Reform Movements.

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

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

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

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.

While President, I Have Been President - Emphatically.

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.

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.

90% Of The Work In This Country Is Done By People Who Don't Feel Good".

The Need For Collecting Large Campaign Funds Would Vanish If Congress Provided An Appropriation For The Proper And Legitimate Expenses Of Each Of The Great National Parties, An Appropriation Ample Enough To Meet The Necessity For Thorough Organization And Machinery, Which Requires A Large Expenditure Of Money. Then The Stipulation Should Be Made That No Party Receiving Campaign Funds From The Treasury Should Accept More Than A Fixed Amount From Any Individual Subscriber Or Donor; And The Necessary Publicity For Receipts And Expenditures Could Without Difficulty Be Provided.

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.

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

There Should Be Relentless Exposure Of And Attack Upon Every Evil Practice, Whether In Politics, In Business, Or In Social Life. I Hail As A Benefactor Every Writer Or Speaker, Every Man Who, On The Platform, Or In Book, Magazine Or Newspaper, With Merciless Severity Makes Such Attack, Provided Always That He In His Turn Remembers That The Attack Is Of Use Only If It Is Absolutely Truthful.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

He [lincoln] Had Mastered It {the Bible] Absolutely...mastered It So That He Became Almost 'a Man Of One Book', Who Knew That Book And Who Instinctively Put Into Practice What He Had Been Taught Therein.

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.

Obedience Of The Law Is Demanded; Not Asked As A Favor.

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.

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

There Can Be No Divided Allegiance Here. Any Man Who Says He Is An American, But Something Else Also, Isn't An American At All. We Have Room For But One Flag, The American Flag...we Have Room For But One Language Here, And That Is The English Language...and We Have Room For But One Sole Loyalty And That Is A Loyalty To The American People.

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

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

Men With The Muckrake Are Often Indispensable To The Well-being Of Society, But Only If They Know When To Stop Raking The Muck, And To Look Upward To The Celestial Crown Above Them.... If They Gradually Grow To Feel That The Whole World Is Nothing But Muck Their Power Of Usefulness Is Gone.

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

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

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.

Compromise" Is So Often Used In A Bad Sense That It Is Difficult To Remember That Properly It Merely Describes The Process Of Reaching An Agreement. Naturally There Are Certain Subjects On Which No Man Can Compromise. For Instance, There Must Be No Compromise Under Any Circumstances With Official Corruption, And Of Course No Man Should Hesitate To Say As Much.

Almost Every Man Who Has By His Life-work Added To The Sum Of Human Achievement Of Which The Race Is Proud, Of Which Our People Are Proud, Almost Every Such Man Has Based His Life-work Largely Upon The Teachings Of The Bible

We Want The Active And Zealous Help Of Every Man Far-sighted Enough To Realize The Importance From The Standpoint Of The Nation's Welfare In The Future Of Preserving The Forests.

The Great Corporations Which We Have Grown To Speak Of Rather Loosely As Trusts Are The Creatures Of The State, And The State Not Only Has The Right To Control Them, But It Is Duty Bound To Control Them Wherever The Need Of Such Control Is Shown.

I Am Simply Unable To Understand The Value Placed By So Many People Upon Great Wealth.

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.

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 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.

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

The American People Abhor A Vacuum.

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.

... 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.

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.

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

What Counts In A Man Or In A Nation Is Not What The Man Or The Nation Can Do, But What He Or It Actually Does.

The Great Man Is Always The Man Of Mighty Effort.

Everyone Loves Justice In The Affairs Of Another.

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

Our Country, We Have Faith To Believe, Is Only At The Beginning Of Its Growth. Unless The Forests Of The United States Can Be Made Ready To Meet The Vast Demands Which This Growth Will Inevitably Bring, Commercial Disaster, That Means Disaster To The Whole Country, Is Inevitable.

There Is No Room In This Country For Hyphenated Americanism.

Of All The Questions Which Can Come Before This Nation, Short Of The Actual Preservation Of Its Existence In A Great War, There Is None Which Compares In Importance With The Great Central Task Of Leaving This Land Even A Better Land For Our Descendants Than It Is For Us.

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

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

A Healthy State Can Exist Only When The Men And Women Who Make It Up Lead Clean, Vigorous, Healthy Lives; When The Children Are So Trained That They Shall Endeavor, Not To Shirk Difficulties, But To Overcome Them; Not To Seek Ease, But To Know How To Wrest Triumph From Toil And Risk.

The Pacifist Is As Surely A Traitor To His Country And To Humanity As Is The Most Brutal Wrongdoer.

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.

The Conservation Of Our Natural Resources And Their Proper Use Constitute The Fundamental Problem Which Underlies Almost Every Other Problem Of Our National Life.

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 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.

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

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!

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

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.

Performance Should Be Made Square With Promise.

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.

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.

The Foes From Whom We Pray To Be Delivered Are Our Own Passions, Appetites, And Follies; And Against These There Is Always Need That We Should War.

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

I Have Often Been Afraid, But I Would Not Give In To It. I Made Myself Act As Though I Was Not Afraid And Gradually My Fear Disappeared.

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.

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

The Important Thing Is This: That, Under Such Government Recognition As We May Give To That Which Is Beneficent And Wholesome In Large Business Organizations, We Shall Be Most Vigilant Never To Allow Them To Crystallize Into A Condition Which Shall Make Private Initiative Difficult. It Is Of The Utmost Importance That In The Future We Shall Keep The Broad Path Of Opportunity Just As Open And Easy For Our Children As It Was For Our Fathers During The Period Which Has Been The Glory Of America's Industrial History.

A True Forest Is Not Merely A Storehouse Full Of Wood, But, As It Were, A Factory Of Wood.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Just As Little Can We Afford To Follow The Doctrinaires Of An Impossible - And Incidentally Of A Highly Undesirable - Social Revolution Which, In Destroying Individual Rights - Including Property Rights - And The Family, Would Destroy The Two Chief Agents In The Advance Of Mankind, And The Two Chief Reasons Why Either The Advance Or The Preservation Of Mankind Is Worthwhile.

Mckinley Has No More Backbone Than A Chocolate Eclair.

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.

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

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.

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Jeffrey Eugenides

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