Your TR Source
The following is a list of quotations attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. Where a source can be verified, it is noted below along with a brief explanation of the setting or the context for that quote. This list includes a number of quotations for which a source has not been verified in Theodore Roosevelt's writings. The context for many of the quotes included here reflects research that has been conducted throughout the years by curators of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard University, which is presented here through a cooperation between Harvard College Library and the Theodore Roosevelt Center. Quotations will be added to this list as staff at both institutions continue their research.
Theodore Roosevelt believed that being of good character and raising your children to be of good character is of vital importance for the future of the nation.
Theodore Roosevelt believed that being of good character and raising your children to be of good character is of vital importance for the future of the nation.
President Roosevelt sends on a patriotic message as he declines the invitation to attend an address about civic patriotism to be given by the President of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson, on December 3, 1903.
In this speech titled “True Americanism,” Theodore Roosevelt describes what is required to be a politically responsible American.
Young Alice learned to hitch a ride with her father, Theodore Roosevelt, as he made his morning rounds to the nursery and down to breakfast.
Theodore Roosevelt was deeply concerned over what he considered the “deterioration” of the race. News about a war in South Africa sparked this particular expression of his concern in 1899.
Early in his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt described the qualities he expected from the men chosen to range the Black Hills Forest Reserve.
In a letter to Marcus Alonzo Hanna written during the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, Roosevelt expresses his vexation over the “hopeless attitude” and “rancor” of the operators and his inability to end the disagreement between the operators and the miners.
This excerpt is from a letter dated May 3, 1902 to Margaret Cary, from whose father TR hoped to buy a horse that would be willing to jump higher than four feet. He notes that his current horse hesitates, and that while no harm has been done so far, he wants a horse that is more comfortable with jumping.
In the preface to The Naval War of 1812, Theodore Roosevelt discusses the objective of his first historical work, published less than 60 years after the war ended.
Roosevelt wrote these words to William Wirt Kimball on November 19, 1897. He soon enough got his war, declared by the United States on April 25, 1898.
Theodore Roosevelt expressed this sentiment in a letter to the Congress of Constructive Patriotism, which was held by the National Security League in Washington on January 25, 26, and 27, 1917. This congress met to promote national spirit.
While Theodore Roosevelt believed deeply in the conservation of our national resources, he also felt strongly that our most vital resource is our children.
Theodore Roosevelt took great pride in being an American, and he showed that pride in many of his speeches and writings throughout his life. This statement is taken from the speech he gave on Independence Day 1886 in Dickinson, Dakota Territory.
The Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition faced several perilous portages, during April of 1914. Roosevelt’s account is published in Through the Brazilian Wilderness.
This statement, which suggests that Theodore Roosevelt was not much of a singer, was included in an 1876 letter to his sister Anna.
Theodore Roosevelt saw the pitfalls that could occur from both extremes of the question of religion and the state. People have long been aware of the dangers of persecution in the name of religion, but the second problem to which Roosevelt refers is a very real danger that is often overlooked. Persecuting religion in the name of freedom is not giving people religious freedom.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote these words in a letter to Henry Cabot Lodge on September 12, 1911. He is referring to his frustration with his colleagues at the Outlook because of their “unutterably silly” views on the international arbitration treaties.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote these words just days before the Republican National Convention of 1912.
These strong words are included in Theodore Roosevelt’s essay “The Key to Success in Life.”