Quotes By Theodore Roosevelt

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

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

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

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

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

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

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

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 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!

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.

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.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

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

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.

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

Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.

The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.