Top 500 Theodore Roosevelt Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “With a great moral issue involved, neutrality does not serve righteousness; for to be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

102. “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.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

104. “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

105. “Each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

107. “The country is the place for children, and if not the country, a city small enough so that one can get out into the country.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

108. “No triumph of peace can equal the armed triumph of war.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

109. “The sons of all of us will pay in the future if we of the present do not do justice in the present.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

110. “Every man owes a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged. No man has the moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

111. “Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood – the virtues that made America.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

112. “Nowhere, not at sea, does a man feel more lonely than when riding over the far-reaching, seemingly never-ending plains...”

— Theodore Roosevelt

113. “He who makes no mistakes makes no progress.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

114. “A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

115. “The Welfare of Each of Us Is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

116. “I dream of men who take the next step instead of worrying about the next thousand steps.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

117. “The truth is that any good modern rifle is good enough. The determining factor is the man behind the gun.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

118. “There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

120. “The light has gone out of my life.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

121. “Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

122. “To educate a person without teaching ethics is to create a menace to society.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

123. “Burning fossil fuels is like breaking up the furniture to feed the fireplace because it’s easier than going out to the woodpile.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

124. “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

125. “Life brings sorrows and joys alike. It is what a man does with them – not what they do to him – that is the true test of his mettle.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

126. “All for each, and each for all, is a good motto; but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain himself as not to be a burden to others.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

127. “Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

128. “The establishment of the National Park Service is justified by considerations of good administration, of the value of natural beauty as a National asset, and of the effectiveness of outdoor life and recreation in the production of good citizenship.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

130. “Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

131. “Never hit if you can help it, but when you have to, hit hard. Never hit soft. You’ll never get any thanks for hitting soft.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

132. “The eighth commandment reads, “Thou shalt not steal.” It does not read, “Thou shalt not steal from the rich man.” It does not read, “Thou shalt not steal from the poor man.” It reads simply and plainly, “Thou shalt not steal.””

— Theodore Roosevelt

133. “The man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic – the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

134. “In the long run, the most unpleasant truth is a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

135. “Black care rarely sits behind the rider whose pace is fast enough.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

136. “The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

137. “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.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

138. “Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. You can only mar it. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it. What you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children and for all who come after you.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

139. “What I am to be, I am becoming.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

140. “A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

141. “Absence and death are the same – only that in death there is no suffering.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

142. “Americans learn only from catastrophe and not from experience.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

143. “It’s not having been in the Dark House, but having left it that counts.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

144. “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.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

145. “Unless the man is master of his soul all other kinds of mastery amount to little.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

146. “What a man does for himself, dies with him. What a man does for his community lives long after he’s gone.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

147. “The worst of all fears is the fear of living.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

148. “Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

149. “Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt