A collection of quotes and thoughts by Theodore Roosevelt on inspiration, politics, failure, bravery, success, timidity, hope, clever, wisdom and envy.
Theodore Roosevelt was a renowned author, reformer, naturalist, statesman, soldier and the youngest President of the United States. He joined the Columbia Law School but soon dropped out to pursue his interest in politics. He served as the youngest member of the New York State assembly for three years. He was further appointed to the United States Civil Service and eventually became the President of the ‘New York City Police Commissioners Board’. There he made several reforms to wipe out all the corrupt practices from the most popular corrupt board of the country. He went on to form a voluntary army called the ‘Rough Riders’ which successfully fought the ‘Battle of San Juan Heights’ under his leadership and this got him the pseudonym of ‘Colonel’. This helped him become the vice president and eventually the President after the then President McKinley’s death. As the President, he brought in various social as well as political reforms duw to which he came to known as a modern President. His policies were very far-sighted and helped progress the country even after his presidential term. His undying interest in politics compelled him to be politically active until the day of his death. Here is a collection of his famous quotes and sayings which reflect his charismatic personality. Take a look at the most famous quotations and thoughts by Theodore Roosevelt which have been curated from his life, work, speeches, books, writings and life.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care
- Theodore Roosevelt
To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right.
- Theodore Roosevelt
If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
- Theodore Roosevelt
I am a part of everything that I have read.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
I am only an average man, but by George, I work harder at it than the average man.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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 Man In The Arena: Speeches and Essays by Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt
Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
- Theodore Roosevelt
No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.
- Theodore Roosevelt
In life, as in football, the principle to follow is to hit the line hard.
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
All the resources we need are in the mind.
- Theodore Roosevelt
The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided, but NEVER hit softly.
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Look Toward the stars but keep your feet firmly on the ground.
- The Greatest American President: The Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt
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.
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.
Each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.
- Theodore Roosevelt
It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.
- Theodore Roosevelt
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
It is better to have it and need it, than
to need it and not have it.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
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 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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Nine tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in 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.
We want men who will fix their eyes on the stars, but who will not forget that their feet must walk on the ground.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Strenuous Life, Theodore Roosevelt
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.
- Theodore Roosevelt
To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
- Theodore Roosevelt
The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others
- Theodore Roosevelt
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat
