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Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

1858–1919 United States

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (27 October 1858 – 6 January 1919), also known as T.R. or Teddy, was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. As a leader of the Republican Party during this time, he became a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century.

United States
Activists
Autobiographers
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Explorers

Also known as: Roosevelt, Theodore, Teddy Roosevelt

Random Theodore Roosevelt quote

245 quotes

We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers.

The first requisite is knowledge, full and complete — which may be made public to the world.

The only safe rule is to promise little, and faithfully to keep every promise; to "speak softly and carry a big stick."

Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913)

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.

We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.

The collective power of the State can help; but it is the individual's own power of self-help which is most important.

The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)

We stand equally against government by a plutocracy and government by a mob.

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.

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

Anything that encourages pauperism, anything that relaxes the manly fiber and lowers self-respect, is an unmixed evil.

No candid observer will deny that whatever of good there may be in our American civilization is the product of Christianity.

Inefficiency is a curse; and no good intention atones for weakness of will and flabbiness of moral, mental, and physical fiber.

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.

In the presence of infinite might and infinite wisdom, the strength of the strongest man is but weakness, and the keenest of mortal eyes see but dimly.

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.

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

I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.

We face the future with our past and our present as guarantors of our promises; and we are content to stand or to fall by the record which we have made and are making.

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

A true forest is not merely a storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a factory of wood.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Theodore Roosevelt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.