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Theodore Roosevelt

361 quotes

“I have not been able to think out any solution of the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent, but of one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed nor driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1880 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917 (2008), by Gail Bederman, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. p. 198.
“By God, if you try anything like that, I'll kick you, I'll bite you, I'll kick you in the balls. I'll do anything to you — you'd better leave me alone.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1881, to "Big John" McManus, a Tammany Hall politician in the New York State Assembly, about a plan to humiliate Roosevelt by tossing him in a blanket. Quoted in "I Rose Like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodor…
“The light has gone out of my life.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Entry in Roosevelt's diary, before which he put a large X, on 14 February 1884, the day in which both his mother and wife died within hours of each other.
“There is a curse on this house.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1878 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Theodore repeating what his brother, Elliot Roosevelt, said when Theodore reached his home in New York City to find both mother and wife dying on the evening of 13 February 1884; in this same house their father had also…
“No candid observer will deny that whatever of good there may be in our American civilization is the product of Christianity.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Our Nation, A Product of Christianity,” Springfield Republican, 1884, editorial.
“The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 1886, in a campaign speech given in New York https://www.history.com/news/teddy-roosevelt-race-imperialism-national-parks
“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indian is the dead Indian, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ibid, January 1886 https://www.history.com/news/teddy-roosevelt-race-imperialism-national-parks
“Of recent years... representative government all over the world has been threatened with a growing paralysis. Legislative bodies have tended more and more to become wholly inefficient for the purposes of legislation. The prime feature in causing this unhealthy growth has been the discovery by minorities that under the old rules of parliamentary procedure they could put a complete stop to all legislative action... If the minority is as powerful as the majority there is no use of having political contests at all, for there is no use in having a majority.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech before the Federal Club, New York City, (6 March 1891), as published in New York Daily Tribune (7 March 1891)
“We need, in the interest of the community at large, a rigid system of game laws rigidly enforced, and it is not only admissible, but one may almost say necessary, to establish, under the control of the State, great national forest reserves, which shall also be breeding grounds and nurseries for wild game; but I should much regret to see grow up in this country a system of large private game preserves, kept for the enjoyment of the very rich.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1893 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Wilderness Hunter, p. 270 (1893)
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The City in Modern Life", Literary Essays (vol. 12 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed., 1926), p. 226. Book review in The Atlantic Monthly (April 1895)
“There is much talk about "jingoism". If by "jingoism" they mean a policy in pursuance of which Americans will with resolution and common sense insist upon our rights being respected by foreign powers, then we are "jingoes".”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In "For An Honest Election". New York Times. 23 Oct 1895. The reference is found halfway down the article.
“The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How Not To Better Social Conditions" in Review of Reviews (January 1897), p. 39 · Full text online (with at least two typos — in the last sentence of the article) as "How Not To Help Our Poor Brother
“It is both foolish and wicked to teach the average man who is not well off that some wrong or injustice has been done him, and that he should hope for redress elsewhere than in his own industry, honesty and intelligence.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How Not To Better Social Conditions" in Review of Reviews (January 1897), p. 39
“Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Hay, American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, London, written in Washington, DC (June 7, 1897)
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1083 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Higher Life of American Cities", in The Outlook (21 December 1895), p. 1083-1085
“To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the player who hits the line hard.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY (October 1897)
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Law of Civilization and Decay", The Forum (January 1897), reprinted in American Ideals (1926), vol. 13 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed., chapter 15, pp. 259–60
“Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsibilities of citizenship because of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and tears, the labor and the anguish, through which, in the days that have gone, our forefathers moved on to triumph.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech before the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island (June 1897), reported in "Washington’s Forgotten Maxim", American Ideals (1926), vol. 13 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed., chapter 12, p. 198
“Greatness means strife for nation and man alike. 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... We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute 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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at the opening of the gubernatorial campaign, New York City (5 October 1898), reported in "The Duties of a Great Nation", Campaigns and Controversies, vol. 14 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed. (19…
“Don't let anyone impose on you. Don't be quarrelsome, but stand up for your rights. If you've got to fight, fight hard and well. To my mind, a coward is the only thing meaner than a liar.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talk to schoolchildren in Oyster Bay, Christmastime (1898), as quoted in The Bully Pulpit : A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations (2002) by H. Paul Jeffers, p. 22
“There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live – I have no use for the sour-faced man – and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talk to schoolchildren in Oyster Bay, Christmastime (1898), as quoted in The Bully Pulpit : A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations (2002) by H. Paul Jeffers, p. 22
“I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Henry L. Sprague (26 January 1900); this is the first known use of this phrase, which became a signature motto of Roosevelt's after he used it in a speech as vice president at the Minnesota State Fair:
“Death is always and under all circumstances a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself has become one.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Cecil Spring-Rice (12 March 1900)
“In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The American Boy", published in St. Nicholas 27, no. 7 (May 1900), p. 574
“I'm as strong as a bull moose and you can use me to the limit.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Mark Hannah (27 June 1900)
“It is a dreadful thing to come into the Presidency in this way; but it would be far worse to be morbid about it. Here is the task, and I have got to do it to the best of my ability.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Probably 1901. Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historical Site -- National Park Service
“I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response when a dignitary asked if he could better control his daughter, as quoted in Hail to the Chiefs : My Life and Times with Six Presidents (1970) by Ruth Shick Montgomery, and TIME magazine (3 March 1980)
“Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures. But there is another harm; and it is evident that we should try to do away with that. 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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Kennedy Plaza, Providence, Rhode Island (23 August 1902), Presidential Addresses and State Papers (1910), p. 103.
“I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in Chattanooga, Tennessee (8 September 1902).
“The government is us; we are the government, you and I.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Asheville, North Carolina (9 September 1902)
“I do not intend to appoint any unfit man to office. So far as I legitimately can I shall always endeavor to pay regard to the wishes and feelings of the people of each locality, but 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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James Adger Smythe (26 November 1902), as quoted in speech by Edward de Veaux Morrell (April 1904)
“If, as you hold, the great hulk of the colored people are not yet fit in point of character and influence to hold such positions, it seems to me that it is worth while putting a premium upon the effort among them to achieve the character and standing which will fit them.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in speech by Edward de Veaux Morrell (April 1904)
“The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight; that he shall not be a mere passenger, but shall do his share in the work that each generation of us finds ready to hand; and, furthermore, that in doing his work he shall show, not only the capacity for sturdy self-help, but also self-respecting regard for the rights of others.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at New York (11 November 1902)
“Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address in San Francisco, California (13 May 1903)
“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Springfield, Illinois (4 July 1903)
“It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Holy Name Society, Oyster Bay, August 16, 1903
“There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man's heart and soul, the man's worth and actions, determine his standing.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (1 September 1903), Oyster Bay, New York
“No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Third State of the Union Address (7 December 1903)
“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Jacob A. Riis in Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen (1904), chapter XVI A Young Men's Hero
“We face the future with our past and our present as guarantors of our promises; and we are content to stand or to fall by the record which we have made and are making.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at Oyster Bay, New York (27 July 1904), in response to the committee appointed to notify him of his nomination for the Presidency.
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Attorney General William H. Moody (August 9, 1904); reported in Homer S. Cummings, Federal Justice (1937), p. 500
“This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address in Memphis, Tennessee (25 October 1905)
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1906 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address on the laying of the cornerstone of the House Office Building, Washington, D.C. (14 April 1906)
“Malefactors of great wealth.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Phrase first used in a speech at Provincetown, Massachusetts (20 August 1907)
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Seventh State of the Union (3 December 1907)
“You tell me that saccharin is injurious to health? Dr. Rixey gives it to me every day. Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response when Harvey W. Wiley opposed the use of saccharin because it is injurious to health, as quoted in The History of a Crime Against the Food Law (1929) by Harvey W. Wiley
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eighth State of the Union Address (8 December 1908)
“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor 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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A mere life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life, and, above all, it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world. In the last analysis 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.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source