Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

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.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

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.

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.

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.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not guilty.’

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

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.

This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.

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.

Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort.

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

The reactionary is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead.

Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.