Quotes from Theodore Roosevelt

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.

Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.

The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world... The first step – in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come – is to teach men to shoot!

Wide differences of opinion in matters of religious, political, and social belief must exist if conscience and intellect alike are not to be stunted, if there is to be room for healthy growth.

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.

No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.

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

A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy.

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.

The worst of all fears is the fear of living

In life, as in football, the principle to follow is to hit the line hard.

For those who fight for it life has a flavor the sheltered will never know

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

90% of the work in this country is done by people who don't feel good".

No man is above the law, and no man is below it.

I put myself in the way of things happening, and they happened.

I am a strong individualist by personal habit, inheritance, and conviction; but it is a mere matter of common sense to recognize that the State, the community, the citizens acting together, can do a number of things better than if they were left to individual action.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

All the resources we need are in the mind.