Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Theodore Roosevelt US President

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Oct 27, 1858
  • Died: Jan 6, 1919

Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. was an American politician, author, naturalist, soldier, explorer, and historian who served as the 26th President of the United States. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the Progressive Party insurgency of 1912. He is known for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity. Born into a wealthy family in New York City, Roosevelt was a sickly child who suffered from asthma. To overcome his physical weakness, he embraced a strenuous life. He was home-schooled and became an eager student of nature. He attended Harvard College, where he studied biology, boxed, and developed an interest in naval affairs. He quickly entered politics, determined to become a member of the ruling class. In 1881, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he became a leader of the reform faction of the GOP. His book, The Naval War of 1812, established him as a learned historian and writer.

The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.

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

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

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

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.

No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

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

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.

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

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

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

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

With self-discipline most anything is possible.

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.

Believe you can and you're halfway there.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young.

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

Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

The government is us we are the government, you and I.

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

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