Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Comparing ourselves to others can lead to dissatisfaction with our own lives.
This quote by Theodore Roosevelt suggests that constantly comparing ourselves to others can rob us of our happiness. When we focus on what we perceive others have or achieve, we may overlook the joys and successes in our own lives, leading to feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness.
Themes
ComparisonJoyHappinessSelf-WorthContentment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to remind the audience to focus on their own path.
More from Theodore Roosevelt
All quotes βIt tires me to talk to rich men. You expect a man of millions, the head of a great industry, to be a man worthhearing; but as a rule they don't know anything outside their own business.
Theodore RooseveltRead
No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Conservation means development as much as it does protection._x000D_ _x000D_ A man's usefulness depends upon his living up to his ideals insofar as he can.
Theodore RooseveltRead
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 at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
Theodore RooseveltRead
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Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.
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I lay in that tub on the seventeenth floor of this hotel for-women-only, high up over the jazz and push of New York, for near unto an hour, and I felt myself growing pure again. I don't believe in baptism or the waters of Jordan or anything like that, but I guess I feel about a hot bath the way those religious people feel about holy water.
Sylvia PlathRead
Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.
Thomas De QuinceyRead
If you are joyful, do not worry about lukewarmness. Joy will shine in your eyes and in your look, in your conversation and in your countenance. You will not be able to hide it because joy overflows.
Mother TeresaRead