People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care

I would rather go out of politics having the feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I have acted as...

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.

It was a pleasure to deal with a man of high ideals, who scorned everything mean and base, and who possessed those robust and hardy qualities of body and mind, for the lack of which...

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

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

We should not forget that it will be just as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time as it is to us to be prosperous in our time.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live...

I f he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

We cordially believe in the rights of property. We think that normally and in the long run the rights of humanity, coincide with the rights of property… But we feel that if in exceptional cases...

To befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business & corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.

It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer.

In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

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

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books

We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the...

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 right to regulate the use of wealth in the public interest is universally admitted. Let us admit also the right to regulate the terms and conditions of labor, which is the chief element of...

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground

The joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it.

I represent the public, not public opinion.

We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and...

When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on

Although not a very old man, I have yet lived a great deal in my life, and I have known sorrow too bitter and joy too keen to allow me to become either cast down...

Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.

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

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

Fellow-feeling. . .is the most important factor in producing a healthy political and social life. Neither our national nor our local civic life can be what it should be unless it is marked by the...

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

This was my first real lesson in politics… If you are cast on a desert island with only a screwdriver, hatchet, and the chisel to make a boat with, why, go and make the best...

…the majority in a democracy has no more right to tyrannize over a minority than, under a different system, the latter would to oppress the former.

The joy of living is his who has the heart to demand it.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

I am a part of everything that I have read.

Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character. It is true, of course, that a genius may, on certain lines, do more than a brave and...

To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very...

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...

Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an...

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasums, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at best know the triumph...

To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

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

I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice Roosevelt. (His 19-year-old daughter.) I cannot possibly do both.

Now and then I am asked as to ‘what books a statesman should read,’ and my answer is, poetry and novels – including short stories under the head of novels.

The government is us; WE are the government, you and I.”- Theodore Roosevelt

Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger...

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

No man in public position can, under penalty of forfeiting the right to the respect of those whose regard he most values, fail as the opportunity comes to do all that in him lies for...