100 Motivational Quotes By Theodore Roosevelt On Leadership, Success And Politics

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

  

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Never

  

Believe you can and you're halfway there.

  

When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on

  

The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.

Never

  

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care

  

To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

I am a part of everything that I have read.

  

Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.

  

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.

  

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care

  

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.

  

The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

Life , Peace

  

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

  

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.

  

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

Character , Like

  

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

Never

  

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

Life , Never

  

When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.

  

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

  

No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Life

  

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!

Never

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans.

  

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

Life

  

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

Peace

  

It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.

  

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.

  

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

Character , Life

  

There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother.

  

I am only an average man, but by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

  

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. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.

Life

  

Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.

  

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.

  

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.

  

No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.

  

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

Life

  

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

  

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

Life

  

The worst of all fears is the fear of living

  

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

  

90% of the work in this country is done by people who don't feel good".

  

For those who fight for it life has a flavor the sheltered will never know

Life , Never

  

Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.

  

All the resources we need are in the mind.

  

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided, but NEVER hit softly.

Never

  

No man is above the law, and no man is below it.

  

The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.

  

There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life, and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction.

Life

  

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss ... The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

  

I put myself in the way of things happening, and they happened.

  

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

  

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!

Think

  

Look Toward the stars but keep your feet firmly on the ground.

  

It tires me to talk to rich men. You expect a man of millions, the head of a great industry, to be a man worthhearing; but as a rule they don't know anything outside their own business.

Me

  

It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer.

  

Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.

  

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books

  

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

  

The government is us; WE are the government, you and I."- Theodore Roosevelt

  

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.

Time

  

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.

  

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.

  

I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.

  

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

Character

  

Each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.

  

It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching.

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

The longer I live the more I think of the quality of fortitude... men who fall, pick themselves up and stumble on, fall again, and are trying to get back up when they die.

Think , Trying

  

It is better to have it and need it, than to need it and not have it.

  

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.

Life

  

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.

Time

  

The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs should be.

  

With self discipline most anything is possible.

  

There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life.

Life

  

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.

  

Nine tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.

Time

  

If there is not the war, you don't get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don't get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.

Peace , Time

  

Comparison is the thief of joy.

  

We are the heirs of the ages

  

We want men who will fix their eyes on the stars, but who will not forget that their feet must walk on the ground.

  

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.

  

No ability, no strength and force, no power of intellect or power of wealth, shall avail us, if we have not the root of right living in us.

  

We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and our resources.

  

I would rather go out of politics having the feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I have acted as I ought not to.

  

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

  

The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others

  

So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat

Never

  

Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort

  

It is no use to preach to children if you do not act decently yourself.

Yourself

  

There has never yet been a person in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

Life , Never