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The same qualities that make a decent boy make a decent man. They have different manifestations, but fundamentally they are the same. If a boy has not got pluck and honesty and commonsense he is a pretty poor creature; and he is a worse creature if he is a man and lacks any of those three traits.

The same qualities that make a decent boy make a decent man. They have different manifestations, but fundamentally they are the same. If a boy has not got pluck and honesty and commonsense he is a pretty poor creature; and he is a worse creature if he is a man and lacks any of those three traits.

Theodore Roosevelt had strong opinions on what it took to make a decent man, which he expressed on several occasions throughout his life, including this address to the students at Groton School in 1904.

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