Characteristic Sayings of Theodore Roosevelt

From Social Service, a monthly publication, of New York City, we republish the following collation of sayings of President Roosevelt:—

"President McKinley has had to face the most serious and complicated problems that have been faced by any President since Lincoln, or by any President for more than a generation before Lincoln. I do not see how there could have been any material improvement in the way that he has faced and solved each problem."

"We live in a period of great social discontent and unrest. Every man who, by his actions, fans the flame of that unrest is a traitor to what is best in our national life and deserves ill of the country."

"Peace cannot be had until the civilized nations of the world have expanded in some shape or other over barbarous nations."

"No nation, no matter how glorious its history, can exist unless it practises—practises, mind you, not merely preaches—civic honesty, civic decency, civic righteousness. No nation can permanently prosper unless the decalogue and the golden rule are its guides in public as in private life."

"Money is a good thing. It is a foolish affectation to deny it. But it is not the only good thing, and after a certain amount has been amassed it ceases to be the chief even of material good things. It is far better, for instance, to do well a bit of work which is well worth doing."

"I think one of the greatest dangers is the tendency to deify mere smartness, to deify mere success without reference as to whether it has been honorable or obtained by methods which should scar the soul. We cannot rise to the level of our inherited traditions until public opinion turns so that the man who won wealth or political success by dishonorable means should feel the scorn of every man whose opinion is worth having."

"The successful man, whether in business or politics, who has risen by a conscienceless swindling of his neighbors, by deceit and chicanery, by unscrupulous boldness and unscrupulous cunning, stands toward society as a dangerous wild beast. The mean and cringing admiration which such a career commands among those who think crookedly or not at all, makes this kind of success perhaps the most dangerous of all the influences that threaten our national life. Our standard of public and private conduct will never be raised to the proper level until we make the scoundrel who succeeds feel the weight of a hostile public opinion even more strongly than the scoundrel who fails."

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shirk from hardship or from bitter toil, and who, out of these, wins the splendid, ultimate triumph."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit