Top 500 Theodore Roosevelt Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

152. “An Airedale can do anything any other dog can do and then whip the other dog if he has to.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

153. “The joy of living is his who has the heart to demand it. Life is a great adventure, and I want to say to you, accept it in such a spirit.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

154. “I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

155. “No President has ever enjoyed himself as much as I?”

— Theodore Roosevelt

156. “Where a trust becomes a monopoly the state has an immediate right to interfere.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

157. “It is necessary for the welfare of the nation that men’s lives be based on the principles of the Bible. No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

158. “I do not intend that our natural resources shall be exploited by the few against the interests of the many.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

159. “Most of us tiptoe through life in order to make it safely to death.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

160. “In name we had the Declaration of Independence in 1776; but we gave the lie by our acts to the words of the Declaration of Independence until 1865; and words count for nothing except in so far as they represent acts.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

161. “It is always better to be an original than an imitation.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

163. “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.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

164. “Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

165. “For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

166. “In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

167. “Death is always, under all circumstances, a tragedy, for if it is not then it means that life has become one.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

168. “This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

169. “No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

170. “To exist as a nation, to prosper as a state, and to live as a people, we must have trees.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

171. “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.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

172. “There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record, except perhaps this one thing. I do the things I believe ought to be done. And when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

173. “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 prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

174. “Men can never escape being governed. Either they must govern themselves or they must submit to being governed by others.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

175. “Every Man owes some of his time to the upbuilding of the profession to which he belongs.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

176. “Thank God for the iron in the blood of our fathers.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

177. “The White House is a bully pulpit.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

178. “Americanism is a question of spirit, of conviction and purpose, not creed or birthplaces. The test of our worth is the service we render.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

179. “The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

180. “Malefactors of great wealth have arrogantly ignored the public welfare.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

181. “Power always brings with it responsibility.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

182. “A grove of giant redwood or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great and beautiful cathedral.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

183. “Not trying is the surest way of achieving nothing at all.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

184. “It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

185. “The woman has the right to be emancipated from the position of a drudge or a toy. She is entitled to a full equality in rights with man...”

— Theodore Roosevelt

186. “McKinley has no more backbone than a chocolate eclair.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

187. “No, I’m not a good shot, but I shoot often.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

188. “The fool who has not sense to discriminate between what is good and what is bad is well nigh as dangerous as the man who does discriminate and yet chooses the bad.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

189. “The dreams of golden glory in the future will not come true unless, high of heart and strong of hand, by our own mighty deeds we make them come true.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

190. “In life, as in football, the principle to follow is to hit the line hard.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

191. “We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

192. “Don’t hit at all if you can help it; don’t hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

193. “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.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

194. “Oh, if only I could be President and Congress, too, just for ten minutes.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

195. “The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

196. “There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

197. “A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

198. “Conservation means development as much as it does protection.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

199. “It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

200. “Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.”

— Theodore Roosevelt