Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

528 Sourced Quotes

The one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight... It should be the growing nation with a future which takes the long look ahead.

Theodore Roosevelt
It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract to require that when men receive from government the privilege of doing business under corporate form... they shall do so under absolutely truthful representations... Great corporations exist only because they were created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and duty to see that they work in harmony with these institutions.

Theodore Roosevelt
We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.

Theodore Roosevelt
The great lawyer who employs his talent and his learning in the highly emunerative task of enabling a very wealthy client to override or circumvent the law is doing all that in him lies to encourage the growth in the country of a spirit of dumb anger against all laws and of disbelief in their efficacy.

Theodore Roosevelt
When I hear of the destruction of a species, I feel just as if all the works of some great writer have perished.

Theodore Roosevelt
There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle; but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained.

Theodore Roosevelt
In a crisis, the man worth his salt is the man who meets the needs of the situation in whatever way is necessary.

Theodore Roosevelt
Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.

Theodore Roosevelt
We want the active and zealous help of every man far-sighted enough to realize the importance from the standpoint of the nation's welfare in the future of preserving the forests.

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
There is need of a sound body, and even more need of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character-the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man's force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor.

Theodore Roosevelt
Our country, we have faith to believe, is only at the beginning of its growth. Unless the forests of the United States can be made ready to meet the vast demands which this growth will inevitably bring, commercial disaster, that means disaster to the whole country, is inevitable.

Theodore Roosevelt
Now and then we hear the wilder voices of the wilderness, from animals that in the hours of darkness do not fear the neighborhood of man: the coyotes wail like dismal ventriloquists, or the silence may be broken by the snorting and stamping of a deer.

Theodore Roosevelt
We have room in this country for but one flag, the Stars and Stripes!

Theodore Roosevelt
The wolf is the arch type of ravin, the beast of waste and desolation.

Theodore Roosevelt
Much of the discussion about socialism and individualism is entirely pointless, because of failure to agree on terminology.

Theodore Roosevelt
When we undertake the impossible, we often fail to do anything at all.

Theodore Roosevelt
I have no business to feel downcast or querulous merely because when so much as been given me I have not had even more.

Theodore Roosevelt
Nothing should be permitted to stand in the way of the preservation of the forests, and it is criminal to permit individuals to purchase a little gain for themselves through the destruction of forests when this destruction is fatal to the well-being of the whole country in the future.

Theodore Roosevelt
A finer body of men has never been gathered by any nation than the men who have done the work of building the Panama Canal; the conditions under which they have lived and have done their work have been better than in any similar work ever undertaken in the tropics; they have all felt an eager pride in their work; and they have made not only America but the whole world their debtors by what they have accomplished.

Theodore Roosevelt
The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.

Theodore Roosevelt
I can no more explain why I like "natural history" than why I like California canned peaches; nor why I do not care for that enormous brand of natural history which deals with invertebrates any more than why I do not care for brandied peaches. All I can say is that almost as soon as I began to read at all I began to like to read about the natural history of beasts and birds and the more formidable or interesting reptiles and fishes.

Theodore Roosevelt
We sincerely and earnestly believe in peace; but if peace and justice conflict, we scorn the man who would not stand for justice though the whole world came in arms against him.

Theodore Roosevelt
I never keep boys waiting. It's a hard trial for a boy to wait.

Theodore Roosevelt
Mother went off for three days to New York and Mame and Quentin took instant advantage of her absence to fall sick. Quentin's sickness was surely due to a riot in candy and ice-cream with chocolate sauce.

Theodore Roosevelt
There should be at least ten times the number of rifles in the country as there are now.

Theodore Roosevelt
Each man must work for himself, and unless he so works, no outside help can avail him.

Theodore Roosevelt
The establishment of the National Park Service is justified by considerations of good administration, of the value of natural beauty as a National asset, and of the effectiveness of outdoor life and recreation in the production of good citizenship.

Theodore Roosevelt
It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one's sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.

Theodore Roosevelt
In the long run, the most unpleasant truth is a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood.

Theodore Roosevelt