A Collection of Quotes from Teddy
Roosevelt
All the resources
we need are in the mind.
Don't hit at all
if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Do what you can,
with what you have, where you are.
Far and away the
best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work
worth doing.
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 too much, because they live in the
gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Freedom from
effort in the present merely means that there has been effort
stored up in the past.
Get action. Seize
the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.
I am only an
average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average
man.
In any moment of
decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst
thing you can do is nothing.
It is better to
be faithful than famous.
It is impossible
to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the
greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home.
I think there is
only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness
of head.
It is hard to
fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life
we get nothing save by effort.
If I have erred,
I err in company with Abraham Lincoln.
I want to see you
shoot the way you shout.
I wish to preach
not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of strenuous
life.
Keep your eyes on
the stars, and your feet on the ground.
Nine-tenths of
wisdom is being wise in time.
Nobody can ever
make you feel inferior without your consent.
No man is above
the law and no man below it.
No man is
justified in doing evil on the grounds of expedience.
No man is worth
his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk
his well-being, to risk his life in a great cause.
The best
executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do
what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from
meddling with them while they do it. The country's honor must be
upheld at home and abroad.
The country needs
and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold,
persistent, experimentation. It is common sense to take a method
and try it, if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But
above all, try something.
The government is
us; we are the government, you and I.
The men and women
who have the right ideals ... are those who have the courage to
strive for the happiness which comes only with labor and effort
and self-sacrifice, and those whose joy in life springs in part
from power of work and sense of duty.
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.
The only man who
never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
The only
tyrannies from which men, women and children are suffering in real
life are the tyrannies of minorities.
There has never
yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is
worth remembering.
There is a homely
adage which runs "Speak softly and carry a big stick you will go
far."
There is no room
in this country for hyphenated Americanism.
The most
important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing
how to get along with people.
To educate a man
in mind, and not in morals, is to educate a menace to society.
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.
Whenever you are
asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly, I can!"
Then get busy and find out how to do it.
When they call
the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer
'Present' or 'Not guilty.'
When you play,
play hard; when you work, don't play at all.
This
was sent to us
.Contributed by Terence Moore
Internet Citation:
http://www.nom.org/articles/wisdom/teddy-quotes.htm