Theodore Roosevelt, sometimes referred to as Teddy Roosevelt even though he didn’t like it, was the 26th President of the United States. He was one of only 3 presidents to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Random fact: Did you know the “Teddy Bear” was named after him? Now you know. The following are some of Mr. Roosevelt’s life insights and quotes.
“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.”
“Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.”
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”
“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
“Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.”
“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.”
“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer -Present- or -Not guilty.-”
“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
“Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.”
“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.”
“The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.”
“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.”
“When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.”
“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
“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.”
“With self-discipline most anything is possible.”
“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.”
“Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.”
“Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.”
“I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.”
“I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.”
“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.”
“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.”
“Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.”
“Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.”
“Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country. ”
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”
“No man is above the law, and no man is below it.”
“No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience. ”
“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.”
“The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.”
“There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else”.
“There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.”
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president… is morally treasonable to the American public. ”
“For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.”
“Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.”
“Absence and death are the same – only that in death there is no suffering. ”
“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!”
“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.”
“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”
“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.”
“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
“Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.”
“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”
“Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.”
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”
“The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.”
