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Love of peace is common among weak, short-sighted, timid, and lazy persons; and on the other hand courage is found among many men of evil temper and bad character. Neither quality shall
by itself avail.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
Justice among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love peace,
but who love righteousness more than peace.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I was a sickly, delicate boy, suffered much from asthma, and frequently had to be taken away on trips to find a place where I
could breathe.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
Quite unknown to myself, I was, while a boy, under a hopeless disadvantage in studying nature. I was very near-sighted, so that the only things I could
study were those I ran against or stumbled over.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
The teaching which I received was genuinely democratic in one way. It was not so democratic in another. I grew into
manhood thoroughly imbued with the feeling that a man must be respected for what he made of himself. But I had also, consciously or unconsciously, been taught that socially and industrially pretty much the whole
duty of the man lay in thus making the best of himself; that he should be honest in his dealings with others and charitable in the old-fashioned way to the unfortunate; but that it was no part of his business to
join with others in trying to make things better for the many by curbing the abnormal and excessive development of individualism in a few.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I regard boxing, whether
professional or amateur, as a first-class sport, and I do not regard it as brutalizing.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I never won anything without hard labor and the exercise of my best judgment and
careful planning and working long in advance.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
The greatest privilege and greatest duty for any man is to be happily married ... no other form of success or service, for
either man or woman, can be wisely accepted as a substitute or alternative.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
The sins against labor are usually committed, and the improper services to capitalists are
usually rendered, behind closed doors. Very often the man with the moral courage to speak in the open against labor when it is wrong is the only man anxious to do effective work for labor when labor is right.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
Traps were set for more than one of us, and if we had walked into these traps our public careers would have ended, at least so far as following them under the conditions
which alone make it worth while to be in public life at all.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on corruption and blackmailing of members of the New York legislature by "The Bosses".
No man can
lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his
private character.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
He must be clean of life, so that he can laugh when his public or his private record is searched; and yet being clean of life will not avail him if he
is either foolish or timid. He must walk warily and fearlessly, and while he should never brawl if he can avoid it, he must be ready to hit hard if the need arises. Let him remember, by the way, that the
unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on qualities that must be possessed by politicians
I had neither
sympathy with nor admiration for the man who was merely a money king, and I did not regard the "money touch," when divorced from other qualities, as entitling a man to either respect or consideration.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I do not believe there ever was any life more attractive to a vigorous young fellow than life on a cattle ranch in those days. It was a fine, healthy life, too; it taught a
man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision--in short, the virtues that ought to come from life in the open country.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on his time as a cattle rancher
The ranch house stood on the brink of a low bluff overlooking the broad, shallow bed of the Little Missouri, through which at most seasons there ran only a trickle of water, while in times of freshet it was filled
brimful with the boiling, foaming, muddy torrent. There was no neighbor for ten or fifteen miles on either side of me. The river twisted down in long curves between narrow bottoms bordered by sheer cliff walls, for
the Bad Lands, a chaos of peaks, plateaus, and ridges, rose abruptly from the edges of the level, tree-clad, or grassy, alluvial meadows. In front of the ranch-house veranda was a row of cottonwood trees with
gray-green leaves which quivered all day long if there was a breath of air. From these trees came the far-away, melancholy cooing of mourning doves, and little owls perched in them and called tremulously at night.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, writing about his ranch, Elkhorn
In my own round-up district I speedily grew to be friends with most of the men. When I went among strangers I always had to spend
twenty-four hours in living down the fact that I wore spectacles, remaining as long as I could judiciously deaf to any side remarks about "four eyes," unless it became evident that my being quiet was
misconstrued and that it was better to bring matters to a head at once.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on his ranching days at Elkhorn Ranch
I never became more than a fair hunter, and at times I had
most exasperating experiences, either failing to see game which I ought to have seen, or committing some blunder in the stalk, or failing to kill when I fired. Looking back, I am inclined to say that if I had any
good quality as a hunter it was that of perseverance.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I owe more than I can ever express to the West, which of course means to the men and women I met in the West. There
were a few people of bad type in my neighborhood--that would be true of every group of men, even in a theological seminary--but I could not speak with too great affection and respect of the great majority of my
friends, the hard-working men and women who dwelt for a space of perhaps a hundred and fifty miles along the Little Missouri. I was always as welcome at their houses as they were at mine. Everybody worked, everybody
was willing to help everybody else, and yet nobody asked any favors.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
It is a capital error to fail to recognize the vital need of good laws. It is also a capital error to
believe that good laws will accomplish anything unless the average man has the right stuff in him.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
Whenever a man thinks that he has outgrown the woman who is his mate,
he will do well carefully to consider whether his growth has not been downward instead of upward, whether the facts are not merely that he has fallen away from his wife's standard of refinement and of duty.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
Otto Raphael was a genuine East Sider. He and I were both "straight New York," to use the vernacular of our native city. Otto's parents had come over from Russia,
and not
only in social standing but in pay a policeman's position meant everything to him. It enabled Otto to educate his little brothers and sisters who had been born in this country, and to bring over from
Russia two or three kinsfolk who had perforce been left behind.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, writing about Otto Raphael a New York Jew whom Roosevelt (as Police Commissioner) had encouraged to take the exam
to become a Police Officer.
I believe in political organizations, and I believe in practical politics. If a man is not practical, he is of no use anywhere. But when politicians treat practical politics as
foul politics, and when they turn what ought to be a necessary and useful political organization into a machine run by professional spoilsmen of low morality in their own interest, then it is time to drive the
politician from public life, and either to mend or destroy the machine, according as the necessity may determine.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
There must be no division by class hatred, whether this
hatred be that of creed against creed, nationality against nationality, section against section, or men of one social or industrial condition against men of another social and industrial condition. We must ever
judge each individual on his own conduct and merits, and not on his membership in any class, whether that class be based on theological, social, or industrial considerations.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I suppose the United States will always be unready for war, and in consequence will always be exposed to great expense, and to the possibility of the gravest calamity, when the Nation goes to war. This is no new
thing. Americans learn only from catastrophes and not from experience.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
A proper armament is the surest guarantee of peace.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I
abhor unjust war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals. I abhor violence and bloodshed. I believe that war should never be resorted to when,
or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid it.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
I had always felt that if there were a serious war I wished to be in a position to explain to my children why I did
take part in it, and not why I did not take part in it.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on the Spanish-American War
I suppose every man tends to brag about his regiment; but it does seem to me that
there never was a regiment better worth bragging about than ours.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on the Rough Riders
We had a number of first-class young fellows from the East, most of them from
colleges like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton; but the great majority of the men were Southwesterners, from the then territories of Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Arizona, and New Mexico. They were accustomed to the use
of firearms, accustomed to taking care of themselves in the open; they were intelligent and self-reliant; they possessed hardihood and endurance and physical prowess; and, above all, they had the fighting edge, the
cool and resolute fighting temper.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on the Rough Riders
I had neither the training nor the capacity that would have enabled me to match Mr. Platt and his machine people
on their own ground. Nor did I believe that the effort to build up a machine of my own under the then existing conditions would meet the needs of the situation so far as the people were concerned. I therefore made
no effort to create a machine of my own, and consistently adopted the plan of going over the heads of the men holding public office and of the men in control of the organization, and appealing directly to the people
behind them.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, on his fight as Governor of New York for political reform
I secured a mass of labor legislation, including the enactment of laws to increase the number of
factory inspectors, to create a Tenement House Commission (whose findings resulted in further and excellent legislation to improve housing conditions), to regulate and improve sweatshop labor, to make the eight-hour
and prevailing rate of wages law effective, to secure the genuine enforcement of the act relating to the hours of railway workers, to compel railways to equip freight trains with air-brakes, to regulate the working
hours of women and protect both women and children from dangerous machinery, to enforce good scaffolding provisions for workmen on buildings, to provide seats for the use of waitresses in hotels and restaurants, to
reduce the hours of labor for drug-store clerks, to provide for the registration of laborers for municipal employment. I tried hard but failed to secure an employers' liability law and the state control of
employment offices. There was hard fighting over some of these bills, and, what was much more serious, there was effort to get round the law by trickery and by securing its inefficient enforcement.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, labor legislation championed as Governor of New York
One of the painful duties of the chief executive in States like New York, as well as in the Nation, is the refusing of
pardons. Yet I can imagine nothing more necessary from the standpoint of good citizenship than the ability to steel one's heart in this matter of granting pardons. The pressure is always greatest in two classes of
cases: first, that where capital punishment is inflicted; second, that where the man is prominent socially and in the business world, and where in consequence his crime is apt to have been one concerned in some way
with finance.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
At Sagamore Hill we love a great many things--birds and trees and books, and all things beautiful, and horses and rifles and children and hard work and the
joy of life.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railroad man, or
farmer, or a successful lawyer or doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household
of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
The Japanese are one of the great nations of the world, entitled to stand, and standing, on a
footing of full equality with any nation of Europe or America. I have the heartiest admiration for them. They can teach us much. Their civilization is in some respects higher than our own.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
In internal affairs I cannot say that I entered the Presidency with any deliberately planned and far-reaching scheme of social betterment. I had, however, certain strong
convictions; and I was on the lookout for every opportunity of realizing those convictions. I was bent upon making the Government the most efficient possible instrument in helping the people of the United States to
better themselves in every way, politically, socially, and industrially. I believed with all my heart in real and thoroughgoing democracy, and I wished to make this democracy industrial as well as political,
although I had only partially formulated the methods I believed we should follow. I believed in the people's rights, and therefore in National rights and States' rights just exactly to the degree in which they
severally secured popular rights. I believed in invoking the National power with absolute freedom for every National need; and I believed that the Constitution should be treated as the greatest document ever devised
by the wit of man to aid a people in exercising every power necessary for its own betterment, and not as a straitjacket cunningly fashioned to strangle growth.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
The wise
custom which limits the President to two terms regards the substance and not the form, and under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
We must recognize the fact that to-day the organization of labor into trade unions and federations is necessary, is beneficent, and is one of the greatest possible agencies in the attainment of a true industrial, as
well as a true political, democracy in the United States.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
If I were a factory employee, a workman on the railroads or a wage-earner of any sort, I would undoubtedly join
the union of my trade. If I disapproved of its policy, I would join in order to fight that policy; if the union leaders were dishonest, I would join in order to put them out.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
There are no men more ignoble or more foolish, no men whose actions are fraught with greater possibility of mischief to their country and to mankind, than those who exalt unrighteous peace as better than
righteous war.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
The only safe rule is to promise little, and faithfully to keep every promise; to "speak softly and carry a big stick."
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
In my own judgment the most important service that I rendered to peace was the voyage of the battle fleet round the world.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
The
two American achievements that really impressed foreign peoples during the first dozen years of this century were the digging of the Panama Canal and the cruise of the battle fleet round the world.
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
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