Explore Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt

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.

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.

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.

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

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

The American people abhor a vacuum.

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.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

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

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.

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

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.

Appraisals are where you get together with your team leader and agree what an outstanding member of the team you are, how much your contribution has been valued, what massive potential you have and, in recognition of all this, would you mind having your salary halved.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.