Inspirational Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Inspirational Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

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
Topics: Patriotism

Short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things…
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Wilderness

No man is above the law, and no man is below it.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Equality

I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use our natural resources, but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or rob by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Wildlife

Americans learn only from catastrophe, and not from experience.
—Theodore Roosevelt

The plea of good intentions is not one that can be allowed to have much weight in passing historical judgment upon a man whose wrong-headedness and distorted way of looking at things produced, or helped to produce, such incalculable evil; there is a wide political applicability in the remark attributed to a famous Texan, to the effect that he might, in the end, pardon a man who shot him on purpose, but that he would surely never forgive one who did so accidentally.
—Theodore Roosevelt

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Failure, Fail

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Success & Failure, Win, Success, People, Love, Society

The cornerstone of this Republic, as of all free government, is respect for and obedience to the law. Where we permit the law to be defied or evaded, whether by rich man or poor man, by black man or white, we are by just so much weakening the bonds of our civilization and increasing the chances of its overthrow, and of the substitution therefore of a system in which there shall be violent alternations of anarchy and tyranny.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Laws

The American people abhor a vacuum.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: America

The men with the muck-rake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Media

The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Insults, Life

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Effort

Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Obedience

We demand that big business give people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right, he shall himself be given a square deal.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Business

I wish all Americans would realize that American politics is world politics.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: America

Our first duty is to war against dishonesty … war against it in public life, and … war against it in business life. Corruption in every form is the arch enemy of this Republic, the arch enemy of free institutions and of government by the people, an even more dangerous enemy than the open lawlessness of violence, because it works in hidden and furtive fashion.
—Theodore Roosevelt

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Identity

Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsibilities of citizenship because of the perils over which, in the The Past 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

Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars and keep your feet on the ground.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Dreams, Inspiration

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.
—Theodore Roosevelt

Unless a man believes in applied morality he is certain to be merely a noxious public servant.
—Theodore Roosevelt

Absence and death are the same—only that in death there is no suffering.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Absence

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.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Leaders, Leadership, Society

I desire to see in this country the decent men strong and the strong men decent, and until we get that combination in pretty good shape, we are not going to be by any means as successful as we should be.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Goodness

Extend pity to no man because he has to work. If he is worth his salt, he will work. I envy the man who has work worth doing and does it well. There never has been devised, and there never will be devised, any law which will enable a man to succeed save by the exercise of those qualities which have always been the prerequisites of success, the qualities of hard work, of keen intelligence, of unflinching will.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Work

My view was that every executive officer, and above all every executive officer in high position, was a steward of the people bound actively and affirmatively to do all he could for the people, and not to content himself with the negative merit of keeping his talents undamaged in a napkin. I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific authorization to do it. My belief was that it was not only his right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws. Under this interpretation of executive power I did and caused to be done many things not previously done by the President and the heads of the departments. I did not usurp power, but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power. In other words, I acted for the public welfare, I acted for the common well-being of all our people, whenever and in whatever manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative prohibition.
—Theodore Roosevelt

We do not admire a man of timid peace.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Courage

Speak softly, but carry a big stick.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Communication

In doing your work in the great world, it is a safe plan to follow a rule I once heard on the football field: Don’t flinch, don’t fall; hit the line hard”.”
—Theodore Roosevelt

Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Wisdom

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

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Character

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

The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Politics

The true Christian is the true citizen, lofty of purpose, resolute in endeavor, ready for a hero’s deeds, but never looking down on his task because it is cast in the day of small things; scornful of baseness, awake to his own duties as well as to his rights, following the higher law with reverence, and in this world doing all that in his power lies, so that when death comes he may feel that mankind is in some degree better because he lived.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Christianity

Men who fear the strenuous life believe in that cloistered life which saps the hardy virtues in a nation as it saps them in the individual, or else they are wedded to the base spirit of gain and greed which recognize in commercialism the be-all and end-all of national life, instead of realizing that, though an indispensable element, it is, after all, but one of many elements that go to make up true national greatness
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Wilderness

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: America

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Mistakes

The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Power

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

• Woodrow Wilson American Head of State
• Charles G. Dawes American Diplomat, Politician
• Franklin D. Roosevelt American Head of State
• Herbert Hoover American Statesman
• Richard Nixon American Head of State
• Lyndon B. Johnson American Head of State
• Calvin Coolidge American Head of State
• Jimmy Carter American Head of State
• Ronald Reagan American Head of State
• George H. W. Bush American Head of State