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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort - Theodore Roosevelt quote

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

– Theodore Roosevelt

Do what you can with what you have where you are.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not guilty.’

– Theodore Roosevelt

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.

– Theodore Roosevelt

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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!

– Theodore Roosevelt

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

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.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

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.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.

– Theodore Roosevelt

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.

– Theodore Roosevelt

I don’t pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

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.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don’t get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Theodore Roosevelt

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