Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.

This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.

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.

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.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'

Our government, National and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.

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.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.

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.

There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.

Believe you can and you're halfway there.

Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right.

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

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.

There is but one answer to terrorism and it is best delivered with a Winchester rifle.

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.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.

Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.

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.

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 unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.

Give the brethren a chance to do something, anything, no matter how small or unimportant. A brother convinced that he is helpful is enthusiastic.

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.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.

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. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the money touch, but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.

Life brings sorrows and joys alike. It is what a man does with them - not what they do to him - that is the true test of his mettle.

A good shot must necessarily be a good man since the essence of good marksmanship is self-control and self-control is the essential quality of a good man.

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young.

Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.

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.

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.

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.

To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.