245 quotes
Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them.
Justice among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love peace, but who love righteousness more than peace.
Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913)
Throughout our history the success of the homemaker has been but another name for the up-building of the nation.
The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900)
I have already lived and enjoyed as much life as any nine other men I have known.
If I must choose between righteousness and peace I choose righteousness.
America and the World War (1915)
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.
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.
To refuse to take, or to permit others to take, wise and practical action for the remedying of abuses is to invite unwise action under the lead of violent extremists.
The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity, when exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows.
The New Nationalism (1910)
If the minority is as powerful as the majority there is no use of having political contests at all, for there is no use in having a majority.
Nothing is more true than that excess of every kind is followed by reaction; a fact which should be pondered by reformer and reactionary alike.
The New Nationalism (1910)
While I was police commissioner, an anti-Semitic preacher from Berlin, Rector Ahlwardt, came over to New York to preach a crusade against the Jews.
Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913)
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.
We must ever judge each individual on his own conduct and merits, and not on his membership in any class, whether that class be based on theological, social, or industrial considerations.
Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913)
The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them.
To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
Second, equality of opportunity means that the commonwealth will get from every citizen the highest service of which he is capable.
The New Nationalism (1910)
When the weather is good for crops it is also good for weeds.
Address at Providence (1901)
Success does not lie entirely in the hands of any one of us.
Address at the Prize Day Exercises at Groton School (1904)
Under present-day conditions it is necessary to have corporations in the business world as it is to have organizations, unions, among wage workers.
Address at Providence (1901)