Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when any one engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal.

I believe that the officers, and, especially, the directors, of corporations should be held personally responsible when any corporation breaks the law.

The reason fat men are good natured is they can neither fight nor run.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

It is always better to be an original than an imitation.

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.

I do not intend that our natural resources shall be exploited by the few against the interests of the many.

To exist as a nation, to prosper as a state, and to live as a people, we must have trees.

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.

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 worst thing I can do is nothing.

The wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man (or any person) on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he is worthy to have.

We have room in this country for but one flag, the Stars and Stripes!

Performance should be made square with promise.

We should not forget that it will be just as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time as it is to us to be prosperous in our time.

Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering.

The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.

The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.

Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.

It is better to be faithful than famous.

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 a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.

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.

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.

There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else

Let individuals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly.

There is not one among us in whom a devil does not dwell; at some time, on some point, that devil masters each of us... It is not having been in the Dark House, but having left it, that counts.

We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out.

Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

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.

If I have to choose between peace and righteousness, I'll choose righteousness.

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.

There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record, except perhaps this one thing. I do the things I believe ought to be done. And when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act.

It is of far more important that a man shall play something himself, even if he plays it badly, than that he shall go with hundreds of companions to see someone else play well.

A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.

Conservation means development as much as it does protection.

Then get busy and find out how to do it.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.

If given the choice between Righteousness and Peace, I choose Righteousness.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action.

Everyone loves justice in the affairs of another.

No man who is not willing to bear arms and to fight for his rights can give a good reason why he should be entitled to the privilege of living in a free community.

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 joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it.

Politeness [is] a sign of dignity, not subservience.

Go ahead, and fear not. You will have a full library at your service.