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Teddy Roosevelt

To quote Theodore Roosevelt

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 16:34

 

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
 
 Speak softly and carry a big stick.
 
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.
 
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
 
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 care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do!
 
If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.
 
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
 
The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
 
Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
 
The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.
 
Believe you can and you're halfway there.
 
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit softly. 
 
A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.
 
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.
 
Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.
 
The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.
 
Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
 
There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
 
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. 
 
When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not Guilty.
 
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
 
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
 
Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young.
 
No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.
 
Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.
 
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
 
We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood.  We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always be done.
 

 

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