The Ultimate Collection of Inspirational Quotes from Theodore Roosevelt

"If we are to be a really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world. We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The greatest happiness is the happiness that comes as a by-product of striving to do what must be done, even though sorrow is met in the doing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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

"Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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, who 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 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 neither know victory nor defeat."

- Teddy Roosevelt

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right."

- 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

"With self-discipline, almost anything is possible."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A stream cannot rise larger than its source."

- 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

"If I must choose between peace and righteousness, I choose righteousness."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another’s keeping."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"All the resources we need are in the mind."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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

"There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: hit the line hard."

- 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

"We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood. We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always be done."

- 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."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I have only a second-rate brain, but I think I have a capacity for action."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"What a man does for himself, dies with him. What a man does for his community lives long after he's gone."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Do something now. If not you, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?"

- Theodore Roosevelt

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"To educate a person in the mind, but not in morals, is to educate a menace to society."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A vote is like a rifle. Its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"We should not forget that it will be just as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time, as it is to us, to be prosperous in our time."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The greatest gift life has to offer is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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

"With self-discipline most anything is possible."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"It is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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

"No man is above the law, and no man is below it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"It is better for the Government to help a poor man to make a living for his family than to help a rich man make more profit for his company."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Courage isn't the absence of fear; it's the choice that something else is greater than that fear."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided, but NEVER hit softly."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives."

- President 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

"Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The government is us; we are the government, you and I."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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!"

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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, who 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 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 neither know victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything."

- 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

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"If you could kick the person in the pants most responsible for your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all."

- 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

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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...Conservation means development as much as it does protection."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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

"It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Books are the ammunition of life."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Life means change; where there is no change, death comes."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Only those who live and sleep in the open fully realize the beauty of dawn and moonlight and starlight."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The second-best thing is the wrong thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Get action. Do things; be sane; don't fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"We must dare to be great, and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I had always felt that if there were a serious war, I wished to be in a position to explain to my children why I did take part in it, and not why I did not take part in it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I grew into manhood thoroughly imbued with the feeling that a man must be respected for what he made of himself."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"There must be the keenest sense of duty, and with it must go the joy of living; there must be shame at the thought of shirking the hard work of the world, and at the same time delight in the many-sided beauty of life."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I am old-fashioned, or sentimental, or something, about books! Whenever I read one, I want in the first place, to enjoy myself, and, in the next place, to feel that I am a little better and not a little worse for having read it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips and shows itself in deeds."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Love of peace is common among weak, short-sighted, timid, and lazy persons; and on the other hand, courage is found among many men of evil temper and bad character."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A man's first duty is to his own home, but he is not thereby excused from doing his duty to the State; for if he fails in this second duty, it is under the penalty of ceasing to be a freeman."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Our creed is one that bids us to be just to all, to feel sympathy for all and to strive for an understanding of the needs of all. Our purpose is to smite down wrong."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The worst lesson that can be taught to a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings."

- 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

"The problems differ from generation to generation, but the qualities needed to solve them remain unchanged from world's end to world's end."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"In advocating any measure, we must consider not only its justice but its practicability."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster."

- 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

"When you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"

- Theodore Roosevelt

"When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care"

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards."

- 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

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Life is a great adventure…accept it in such a spirit."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The joy of living is his who has the heart to demand it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- 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."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

- 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

"No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young."

- Fred Astaire

"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."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I am a part of everything that I have read."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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

"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

"The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A grove of giant redwood or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great and beautiful cathedral."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"While my interest in natural history has added very little to my sum of achievement, it has added immeasurably to my sum of enjoyment in life."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"At sometime in our lives a devil dwells within us, causes heartbreaks, confusion and troubles, then dies."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"We must remember not to judge any public servant by any one act, and especially should we beware of attacking the men who are merely the occasions and not the cause of disaster."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'"

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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."