Top 500 Theodore Roosevelt Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 5 of 10

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

202. “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

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

205. “Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

206. “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

207. “Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Featured in: Country Quotes

208. “It is of little use for us to pay lip-loyalty to the mighty men of the past unless we sincerely endeavor to apply to the problems of the present precisely the qualities which in other crises enabled the men of that day to meet those crises.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

209. “Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above is character.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

210. “Certain rich men, whose lives are evil and corrupt, are the representatives of predatory wealth accumulated by all forms of inequity, from the oppression of wage workers to unfair methods of crushing out competition.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

211. “Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

213. “We must diligently strive to make our young men decent, God-fearing, law-abiding, honor-loving, justice-doing and also fearless and strong.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Featured in: Strong Quotes

214. “There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

215. “While my interest in natural history has added very little to my sum of achievement, it has added immeasurably to my sum of enjoyment in life.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

216. “If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

217. “I never keep boys waiting. It’s a hard trial for a boy to wait.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

218. “The curse of every ancient civilization was that its men in the end became unable to fight. Materialism, luxury, safety, even sometimes an almost modern sentimentality, weakened the fibre of each civilized race in turn; each became in the end a nation of pacifists, and then each was trodden under foot by some ruder people that had kept that virile fighting power the lack of which makes all other virtues useless and sometimes even harmful.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

219. “I grew into manhood thoroughly imbued with the feeling that a man must be respected for what he made of himself.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

220. “The chief factor in any man’s success or failure must be his own character.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

221. “It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

222. “It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

223. “There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a Democrat like myself must admit this.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

224. “I would a great deal rather be anything, say professor of history, than vice president.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

225. “There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life, and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Featured in: Real Quotes

226. “There is but one answer to terrorism and it is best delivered with a Winchester rifle.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

227. “The spirit of brotherhood recognizes of necessity both the need of self-help and also the need of helping others in the only way which every ultimately does great god, that is, of helping them to help themselves.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

228. “The wolf is the arch type of ravin, the beast of waste and desolation.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

229. “I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

230. “I do not believe there was ever a life more attractive than life on a cattle farm.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

231. “A just war is in the long run far better for a man’s soul than the most prosperous peace.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

232. “Argument weak; speak loudly!”

— Theodore Roosevelt

233. “Avoid the base hypocrisy of condemning in one man what you pass over in silence when committed by another.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

234. “There are rainy days in autumn and stormy days in winter when the rocking chair in front of the fire simply demands an accompanying book.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Featured in: Book Quotes

235. “All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune-make for a finer, nobler type of manhood.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Featured in: History Quotes

236. “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

237. “In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Featured in: Country Quotes

238. “By acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

239. “Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Featured in: Country Quotes

240. “No educated man can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

241. “The biggest corporation, like the humblest private citizen, must be held to strict compliance with the will of the people as expressed in the fundamental law.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

242. “Yes, my friend, and if you will steal for me then you will steal from me.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

243. “Every child has inside him an aching void for excitement and if we don’t fill it with something which is exciting and interesting and good for him, he will fill it with something which is exciting and interesting and which isn’t good for him.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

244. “Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

245. “At sometime in our lives a devil dwells within us, causes heartbreaks, confusion and troubles, then dies.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

246. “Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

247. “The lives of truest heroism are those in which there are no great deeds to look back upon. It is the little things well done that go to make up a truly successful and good life.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

248. “Every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

249. “The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

250. “The nation should be ruled by the Ten Commandments.”

— Theodore Roosevelt