Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

Quotes

• Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.

• I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

• Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure , than to take rank with those poor spires who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.

• The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.

• Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.

• No foreign policy-no matter how ingenious-has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of few and carried in the hearts of many.

• The United States does not have a choice as to whether or not is will or will not play a great part in the world. Fate has made that choice for us. The only question is whether we will play the part well or badly.

• No, I'm not a good shot, but I shoot often.

• The wild life of today is not ours to do with as we please. The original stock was given to us in trust for the benefit both of the present and the future. We must render an accounting of this trust to those who come after us.

• In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.

• The decisions of the courts on economic and social questions depend on their economic and social philosophy.

• Do what you can with what you have where you are.

• It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

• When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not Guilty."

• It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

• Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.

• Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly I can!" - and get busy and find out how to do it.

• A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.

• The great virtue of my radicalism lies in the fact that I am perfectly ready, if necessary, to be radical on the conservative side.

• The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.