Home › Authors › Theodore Roosevelt
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 Essayists Explorers Also known as: Roosevelt, Theodore, Teddy Roosevelt
Random Theodore Roosevelt quote
245 quotes
The light has gone out of my life.
I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.
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.
To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the player who hits the line hard.
We demand that big business give people a square deal; in return we must insist that when any one engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right, he shall himself be given a square deal.
In our complex industrial civilization of today the peace of righteousness and justice, the only kind of peace worth having, is at least as necessary in the industrial world as it is among nations.
Nobel lecture (1910)
No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered — not gambling in stocks, but service rendered.
The New Nationalism (1910)
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
You, the sons of the pioneers, if you are true to your ancestry, must make your lives as worthy as they made theirs. They sought for true success, and therefore they did not seek ease. They knew that success comes only to those who lead the life of endeavor.
The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900)
I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends; but I rank dividends below human character.
The New Nationalism (1910)
By God, if you try anything like that, I'll kick you, I'll bite you, I'll kick you in the balls. I'll do anything to you — you'd better leave me alone.
I cannot consent to take the position that the door of hope — the door of opportunity — is to be shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, purely upon the grounds of race or color. Such an attitude would, according to my convictions, be fundamentally wrong.
If there must be decision by a close majority, then let the people step in and let it be their majority that decides.
California's Policies Proclaimed (1911)
There is a curse on this house.
We have established complete liberty of conscience, and, in consequence, a complete liberty for mental activity. All free and daring souls have before them a well-nigh limitless opening for endeavor of any kind.
Whenever the alternative must be faced, I am for men and not for property … . I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends; but I rank dividends below human character.
As a people we claim the right to speak with peculiar emphasis for freedom and for fair treatment of all men without regard to differences of race, fortune, creed or color. We forfeit the right so to speak when we commit or condone such crimes as these of which I speak.
Letter to Winfield T. Durbin (1903)
What would be done to us in the name of war if these things are done to us in the name of neutrality?
Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
The good citizen must be a good citizen of his own country first before he can with advantage be a citizen of the world at large.
The World Movement (1910)
We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary.
Nobel lecture (1910)
Topics Theodore Roosevelt is quoted on
Works
Address to U.S. Army recruits (1898, speech) · 1 The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900) · 14 Address at Providence (1901, speech) · 5 A Square Deal (1903) · 8 Letter to Winfield T. Durbin (1903, letter) · 1 Address at the Prize Day Exercises at Groton School (1904, speech) · 5 Inaugural Address (1905, speech) · 3 Seventh Annual Message (1907) · 1 Bully Pulpit (1909) · 1 The Thraldom of Names (1909) · 3 Citizenship in a Republic (1910) · 4 Nobel lecture (1910, speech) · 7 The New Nationalism (1910) · 24 The Progressives, Past and Present (1910) · 11 The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1910) · 1 The World Movement (1910) · 4 California's Policies Proclaimed (1911) · 3 Address at Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1912, speech) · 2 The Rights of the People to Rule (1912) · 1 Theodore Roosevelt : An Autobiography (1913) · 1 Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913) · 17 Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915, speech) · 4 America and the World War (1915) · 1 Fear God and Take Your Own Part (1916) · 3 Stepping Stones : The Complete Bible Narratives (1941) · 1