|
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses
Exactly as it is the duty of a civilized power scrupulously to respect the rights of all weaker civilized powers and gladly to help those who are struggling toward civilization, so it is its duty to put down savagery and barbarism. As in such a work human instruments must be used, and as human instruments are imperfect, this means that at times there will be injustice; that at times merchant or soldier, or even missionary, may do wrong. Let us instantly condemn and rectify such wrong when it occurs, and if possible punish the wrongdoer. But shame, thrice shame to us, if we are so foolish as to make such occasional wrongdoing an excuse for failing to perform a great and righteous task. Not only in our own land, but throughout the world, throughout all history, the advance of civilization has been of incalculable benefit to mankind, and those through whom it has advanced deserve the highest honor. All honor to the missionary, all honor to the soldier, all honor to the merchant who now in our own day have done so much to bring light into the world’s dark places.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Address at the Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul, Sep. 2, 1901
The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech to the Colorado Live Stock Association, Denver, Colorado, Aug. 29, 1910
Unjust war is to be abhorred; but woe to the nation that does not make ready to hold its own in time of need against all who would harm it! And woe thrice over to the nation in which the average man loses the fighting edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need should arise!
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech at the University of Berlin, May 12, 1910
Gentlemen: you have now reached the last point. If anyone of you doesn’t mean business let him say so now. An hour from now will be too late to back out. Once in, you’ve got to see it through. You’ve got to perform without flinching whatever duty is assigned you, regardless of the difficulty or the danger attending it. If it is garrison duty, you must attend to it. If it is meeting fever, you must be willing. If it is the closest kind of fighting, anxious for it. You must know how to ride, how to shoot, how to live in the open. Absolute obedience to every command is your first lesson. No matter what comes you mustn’t squeal. Think it over — all of you. If any man wishes to withdraw he will be gladly excused, for others are ready to take his place.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, address to U.S. Army recruits, 1898, reported in U.S. Army Field Manual 22-5 (1986)
The party belongs to the millions of the rank and file. It does not belong to the handful of politicians who have assumed fraudulently to upset the will of the rank and file. The action of these men is in no sense "regular," as they claim it to be.... theft and dishonesty cannot give and never shall give a title to regularity.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech at Progressive Party Convention, Chicago, Illinois, Jun. 17, 1912
Life is as if you were traveling a ridge crest. You have the gulf of inefficiency on one side and the gulf of wickedness on the other, and it helps not to have avoided one gulf if you fall into the other.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech at Groton, Massachusetts, May 24, 1904
The first essential of civilization is law. Anarchy is simply the handmaiden and forerunner of tyranny and despotism. Law and order enforced with justice and by strength lie at the foundations of civilization. Law must be based upon justice, else it cannot stand, and it must be enforced with resolute firmness, because weakness in enforcing it means in the end that there is no justice and no law, nothing but the rule of disorderly and unscrupulous strength. Without the habit of orderly obedience to the law, without the stern enforcement of the laws at the expense of those who defiantly resist them, there can be no possible progress, moral or material, in civilization.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Address at the Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul, Sep. 2, 1901
The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech at Providence, Rhode Island, Aug. 23, 1902, reported in Presidential Addresses and State Papers (1910)
It is not only highly desirable but necessary that there should be legislation which shall carefully shield the interests of wage-workers, and which shall discriminate in favor of the honest and humane employer by removing the disadvantage under which he stands when compared with unscrupulous competitors who have no conscience and will do right only under fear of punishment.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Address at the Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul, Sep. 2, 1901
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech at Springfield, Illinois, Jul. 4, 1903
In every civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; ordinarily, and in the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, human rights must have the upper hand, for property belongs to man and not man to property.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, Apr. 23, 1910
Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them.... If they gradually grow to feel that the whole world is nothing but muck their power of usefulness is gone.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, address on the laying of the cornerstone of the House Office Building, Washington, D.C., Apr. 14, 1906
We are passing through a period of great commercial prosperity, and such a period is as sure as adversity itself to bring mutterings of discontent. At a time when most men prosper somewhat some men always prosper greatly; and it is as true now as when the tower of Siloam fell upon all alike, that good fortune does not come solely to the just, nor bad fortune solely to the unjust. When the weather is good for crops it is also good for weeds.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Address at Providence, Rhode Island, Aug. 23, 1902
The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight; that he shall not be a mere passenger, but shall do his share in the work that each generation of us finds ready to hand; and, furthermore, that in doing his work he shall show, not only the capacity for sturdy self-help, but also self-respecting regard for the rights of others.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech in New York, Nov. 11, 1902
It is natural that the representatives of special privilege, who know that special privilege cannot continue if the people really rule, should resort unblushingly to every kind of trickery and dishonesty in order to perpetuate their hold upon the party, and should be eager callously to destroy the party if necessary to prevent its being controlled by its rank and file. But for this very reason we feel we have a right solemnly to appeal to all honest men to stand with us on what has now become a naked issue of right and wrong. There can be no yielding, no flinching on our part. We have the people behind us overwhelmingly. We have justice and honesty on our side. We are warring against bossism, against privilege social and industrial; we are warring for the elemental virtues of honesty and decency, of fair dealing as between man and man; we are warring to save the Republican party; and the only reward for which we ask is to put our party in such shape that it shall be of the highest possible service to the people of the United States.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, speech at Progressive Party Convention, Chicago, Illinois, Jun. 17, 1912
There is a lunatic fringe to every reform movement.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, An Autobiography
The anarchist is a criminal whose perverted instincts lead him to prefer confusion and chaos to the most beneficent form of social order.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, State of the Union Address, December 3, 1901
A party should not contain utterly incongruous elements, radically divided on the real issues, and acting together only on false and dead issues insincerely painted as real and vital. It should not in the several States as well as in the Nation be prostituted to the service of the baser type of political boss. It should be so composed that there should be a reasonable agreement in the actions taken by it both in the Nation and in the several States. Judged by these standards, both of the old parties break down.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, The Outlook, Jul. 27, 1912
It is ... only through strife, through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and by resolute courage, we move on to better things.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, response to the toast "The State of New York" at the Lincoln Club Dinner in New York City, Feb. 13, 1899
|
