Inspirational Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Inspirational Quotations by Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919,) nicknamed Teddy, was an American politician who served as the popular 26th president of the United States 1901–09. The first American to win a Nobel Prize in 1906, he was also an author, naturalist, explorer, and historian.

Born in New York City of Dutch and Scottish descent, Roosevelt studied at Harvard. He gained national celebrity as the organizer of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War (1898.) He became Republican governor of New York State in 1899, and vice president in 1901. Roosevelt became president after the assassination of William McKinley.

A vigorous progressive, Roosevelt moved to control monopolies through anti-trust legislation. Overseas, he expanded America’s power and prestige, gaining the Panama Canal, and taking an increasing role in world affairs. His intervention after the Russo-Japanese War earned him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

After retiring in 1909, Roosevelt went on a hunting trip in Central Africa. He returned to America and was drawn into politics. He disagreed with the policies of his successor, President William Taft. Roosevelt challenged Taft for the presidency in 1912 as leader of the National Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party.) The ensuing Republican split produced a Democratic victory, and Woodrow Wilson became president.

Subsequently, Roosevelt explored the Rio da Dúvida (“River of Doubt”) in Brazil, and he campaigned for U.S. intervention during World War I. A gifted scholar, he composed more than thirty books on such diverse topics as American ideals, ranching, hunting, and zoology.

The teddy bear is named after Theodore Roosevelt—the result of his refusal to shoot a bear cub during a hunting trip. Too, Roosevelt was a fifth cousin of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and an uncle of FDR’s wife Eleanor Roosevelt.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Theodore Roosevelt

Inspirational Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Action

After the war, and until the day of his death, his position on almost every public question was either mischievous or ridiculous, and usually both.
—Theodore Roosevelt

It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Risk, Success

The worst of all fears is the fear of living.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Fear, Anxiety

Every man has a right to one country. He has a right to love and serve that country and to feel that it is absolutely his country and that he has in it every right possessed by anyone else. It is our duty to require the man of German blood who is an American citizen to give up all allegiance to Germany wholeheartedly and without on his part any mental reservation whatever. If he does this it becomes no less our duty to give him the full rights of an American, including our loyal respect and friendship without on our part any mental reservation whatever. The duties are reciprocal, and from the standpoint of American patriotism one is as important as the other.
—Theodore Roosevelt

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Failure

Instruction in things moral is most necessary to the making of the highest type of citizenship.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Teaching

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Evil

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
Topics: Duty

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 errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Truth, Risk, Success, Courage, Doing Your Best, Accomplishment, Defeat, Criticism, Mistakes, Failures, Challenges

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.
—Theodore Roosevelt

No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his life, in a great cause.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Patriotism

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

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

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

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

No man who is not willing to bear arms and to fight for his rights can give a good reason why he should be entitled to the privilege of living in a free community.
—Theodore Roosevelt

Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly. This is true about Mr. Wilson now and it has been true about all our Presidents in the past. It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the President and about every one else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy.
—Theodore Roosevelt

The weakling and the coward are out of place in a strong and free community. In a republic like ours the governing class is composed of the strong men who take the trouble to do the work of government; and if you are too timid or too fastidious or too careless to do your part in this work, then you forfeit your right to be considered one of the governing and you become one of the governed insteadone of the driven cattle of the political arena.
—Theodore Roosevelt

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.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Action, Decisions, Procrastination

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

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Ideal, Stars

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Ideals, Idealism

He has been called a mediocre man; but this is unwarranted flattery. He was a politician of monumental littleness.
—Theodore Roosevelt

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.
—Theodore Roosevelt

If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful.
—Theodore Roosevelt

A man must first care for his own household before he can be of use to the state. But no matter how well he cares for his household, he is not a good citizen unless he also takes thought of the state. In the same way, a great nation must think of its own internal affairs; and yet it cannot substantiate its claim to be a great nation unless it also thinks of its position in the world at large.
—Theodore Roosevelt

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

In this world the one thing supremely worth having is the opportunity to do well and worthily a piece of work of vital consequence to the welfare of mankind.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Opportunities

The idea that our natural resources were inexhaustible still obtained, and there was as yet no real knowledge of their extent and condition. The relation of the conservation of natural resources to the problems of National welfare and National efficiency had not yet dawned on the public mind. The reclamation of arid public lands in the West was still a matter for private enterprise alone; and our magnificent river system, with its superb possibilities for public usefulness, was dealt with by the National Government not as a unit, but as a disconnected series of pork-barrel problems, whose only real interest was in their effect on the reelection or defeat of a Congressman here and therea theory which, I regret to say, still obtains.
—Theodore Roosevelt

Greatness means strife for nation and man alike. A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fiber 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

Let us show, not merely in great crises, but in every day affairs of life, qualities of practical intelligence, of hardihood and endurance, and above all, the power of devotion to a lofty ideal.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Ideals

Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihoodthe virtues that made America. 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.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Wealth, Peace

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do to ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Wealth

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts about reality.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Attitude, Doubt, Belief

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

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Lawyers

There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. 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. Conservation means development as much as it does protection.
—Theodore Roosevelt

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
—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