Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

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

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

Let us show, not merely in great crises, but in every day of life, qualities of practical intelligence, of hardihood and endurance, and above all, the power of devotion to a lofty ideal.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.

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.

In life, as in football, the principle to follow is to hit the line hard.

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.

The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.

By acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid.

The highest form of success comes 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.

There is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement.

There are many occasions when the highest praise one can receive is the attack of some given scoundrel.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

The Welfare of Each of Us Is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us

The greatest historian should also be a great moralist. It is no proof of impartiality to treat wickedness and goodness on the same level.

At sometime in our lives a devil dwells within us, causes heartbreaks, confusion and troubles, then dies.

The chief factor in any man's success or failure must be his own character.

To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing.

The modern naturalist must realize that in some of its branches his profession, while more than ever a science, has also become an art.

I always keep my weather eye on the opposition of my seventh house Moon to my first house Mars.

We shall make mistakes; and if we let these mistakes frighten us from our work we shall show ourselves weaklings.

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.

I have always said I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.

I want to see you shoot the way you shout.

I do not believe there was ever a life more attractive than life on a cattle farm.

Unless the man is master of his soul all other kinds of mastery amount to little.

My hat's in the ring. The fight is on and I'm stripped to the buff.

The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame.

Don't foul, don't flinch-hit the line hard.

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.

The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom.

Speak softly, I'm getting my massage.

When we undertake the impossible, we often fail to do anything at all.

Whatever it is, handle it so that your children's children will get the benefit of it.

In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.

The hardest lessons to learn are those that are the most obvious.

The only tyrannies from which men, women and children are suffering in real life are the tyrannies of minorities.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune-make for a finer, nobler type of manhood.

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.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains.

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one's sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.

There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility.

I wish to see the Bible study as much a matter of course in the secular colleges as in the seminary.

There should be at least ten times the number of rifles in the country as there are now.

We have duties to others, and duties to ourselves, and we cannot shirk either.