Inspirational Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Inspirational Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Some reformers may urge that in the ages distant future, patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present the man who loves other countries as much as he does his own is quite as noxious a member of society as the man who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of home.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Patriotism

Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Purpose, Usefullness

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders for the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Class

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

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

My hat’s in the ring. The fight is on and I’m stripped to the buff.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Competition

Forestry is the preservation of forests by wise use.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Wilderness

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

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

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Politics

The one being abhorrent to the powers above the earth and under them is the hyphenated American.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: America

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Leadership, Business, Leaders, Teamwork

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Freedom

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

When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer “present” or “not guilty.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Politicians, Politics

The one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight… It should be the growing nation with a future which takes the long look ahead.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Foresight

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.
—Theodore Roosevelt

At least fail while daring greatly.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Courage

Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Right, Courage, Sports, Rightness

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

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Doing Your Best, Humankind, Value of Time, Secrets of Success, Time Management, Action, Effort, Simplicity

There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle; but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Failure, Principles

Willful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement. No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Birth

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

The men and women who have the right ideals … are those who have the courage to strive for the happiness which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice, and those whose joy in life springs in part from power of work and sense of duty.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Topics: Sacrifice

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

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

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: Courage, Accomplishment, Achieve, Defeat, Criticism, Doing Your Best, Truth, Failures, Risk, Mistakes, Challenges, Success

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

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