Quotes By Theodore Roosevelt

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

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

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

The American people abhor a vacuum.

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

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.

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

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.

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

We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.

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

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

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

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

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

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.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

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

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.