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.
…you will remember that in the war with Spain our regiment was raised, armed, equipped, mounted, dismounted, drilled, kept two week on transports, and put through two victorian aggressive fights in which it lost nearly a quarter of the men engaged, and over one-third of the officers, a loss greater than that suffered by any but two of the twenty-four regular regiments in the same army corps; and all this within sixty days.
Theodore Roosevelt recounts the history of the Rough Riders in a letter to President Taft and offers to gather a similar regiment, if needed.
“Courage is not having the strength to go on; but going on when you don’t have the strength.”
This quote is frequently attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, but it is not to be found in any of his writings, public or private. It is also not found in the writings of those who knew and quoted him. It appears to have been first attributed to him in the late 1990s, with growing popularity throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Before that, it circulated for decades as a generalized sentiment with no attribution attached.
“I can be President of the United States–or– I can attend to Alice.”
This quote was reported by Owen Wister in his book, Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship 1880-1919. Theodore Roosevelt reportedly said this to a friend in response to the question, “Why don’t you look after Alice more?”
“On the one hand I wish by my action to avoid stirring up any bitterness; on the other hand, I must not act in a cowardly manner and make the apostles of lawlessness and of brutal disregard of the rights of the black man feel encouraged in their indignity. As always in life, I have to face conditions, not as I would like to have them, but as they actually are, and every course I take is beset with difficulties.”
In this September 14, 1904 letter to John Byrne , Roosevelt talks about factors in his decision making regarding his refusal to accept Indianola, Mississippi postmistress Minnie Geddings Cox’s resignation the year prior, which had become known as the Indianola Affair. Cox, Mississippi’s first African American postmistress, was treated with violence and threats by local whites unhappy with her position of prominence. When they voted for her removal from office, Roosevelt ordered the mail to the town to be stopped until they allowed Cox back into her position.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far.” If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few things more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting; and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples.
Roosevelt uttered these words at the Minnesota State Fair on September 2, 1901. He could not know that two weeks later he would be the president of the United States. The African proverb “Speak softly…” was one of his favorite utterances.
[A]ll the laws that the wit of man can devise will never make a man a worthy citizen unless he has within himself the right stuff, unless he has self-reliance, energy, courage, the power of insisting on his own rights and the sympathy that makes him regardful of the rights of others.
This line from Theodore Roosevelt’s autobiography is a good summation of his life’s philosophy.
[An] enormous damage, [an] incredible damage, is done to the public, by completely misinforming them as to the character of the decent public servant, and also misinforming them as to the character of that man in public life who is an unworthy public servant.
President Roosevelt railed against libelous newspaper reporting, and decried especially the harm it did to the American public because a democracy depends upon an educated citizenry—not upon voters deliberately misled by the press.
[F]or 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.
Children–his own and others–were the delight of Theodore Roosevelt’s life. He made this statement in Chapter IX of his Autobiography, which was first published in 1913.
[I]n the long run, in the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed in the balance against that assemblage of virtues, active and passive, of moral qualities, which we group together under the name of character….
Theodore Roosevelt wrote this in 1900, after he had been shaped by his wartime experiences but before he entered the presidency. It was another restatement of what he believed to be the most important determinant for success in life: a moral character.
[O]fficers and men shook hands and said goodbye to each other, and then they scattered to their homes in the North and the South, the few going back to the great cities of the East, the many turning again toward the plains, the mountains, and the deserts of the West and the strange Southwest. This was on September 15th, the day which marked the close of the four months’ life of a regiment of as gallant fighters as ever wore the United States uniform.
In this way Theodore Roosevelt described the disbanding of the Rough Riders after the successful outcome of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Roosevelt led his men into battle in Cuba, and his experiences there contributed to his fame as they helped to launch his national political career. The Rough Riders were disbanded on this date in 1898.
[S]ocial consciousness is the only effective antidote to the class consciousness of the Socialist.
Theodore Roosevelt believed that the Socialist Party in the U.S. was attempting to base itself upon “class consciousness,” which he worried about, but felt would be doomed to failure in this democratic republic.
[S]trength should go hand in hand with courtesy, with scrupulous regard in word and deed, not only for the rights, but for the feelings, of other countries.
Theodore Roosevelt made this assertion on the necessity of balancing a global foreign presence with the responsibilities of international power in a speech in 1903.
[T]he great development of industrialism means that there must be an increase in the supervision exercised by the Government over business-enterprise.
President Roosevelt lectured Philadelphians with this message, but his real audience was Congress. In January 1905, Roosevelt locked horns with stand-pat Republicans who believed Congress should pass appropriations bills and assist businesses. Roosevelt sought firm federal oversight of industries he felt harmed the American people.
[T]he one certain way to invite disaster is to be opulent, offensive, and unarmed.
As the European powers were tumbling into World War I, Theodore Roosevelt was an early advocate of “preparedness.” He believed that the U.S. had to be ready with sufficient material and well-trained men should the country be swept onto the battlefields across the Atlantic. In speeches and articles, he warned Americans and harried President Wilson and Congress about the virtues of preparedness.
[T]here is a growing determination that no man shall amass a great fortune by special privilege, by chicanery and wrong-doing, so far as it is in the power of legislation to prevent; and that a fortune, however amassed, shall not have a business use that is antisocial.
President Theodore Roosevelt spoke these words in 1907. By “antisocial” he meant opposed to the general welfare of Americans as a whole.
[The Boy Scout movement] has already done much good, and it will do far more, for it is in its essence a practical scheme through which to impart a proper standard of ethical conduct, proper standards of fair play and consideration for others, and courage and decency….
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) began in 1910, after Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential term expired. Nonetheless, Roosevelt so believed in the mission of Boy Scouting that he served as honorary vice president of the Boy Scouts and is the only man ever to have been known as Chief Scout Citizen. This quote is from a 1911 letter to BSA Chief Scout Executive James E. West.
[The historian] must ever remember that while the worst offense of which he can be guilty is to write vividly and inaccurately, yet that unless he writes vividly he cannot write truthfully; for no amount of dull, painstaking detail will sum up the whole truth unless the genius is there to paint the whole truth.
Theodore Roosevelt delivered this advice to professional historians in 1912 at the national gathering of the American Historical Association. Roosevelt wrote just the kind of vivid historical prose he advocated here.
[W]e are stirred to awe and wonder and devotion for [Abraham Lincoln,] the great man who, in strength and sorrow bore the people’s burdens through the four years of our direst need, and then, standing as high priest between the horns of the altar, poured out his own lifeblood for the Nation whose life he had saved.
Of all the presidents who preceded him, Theodore Roosevelt admired Lincoln the most. This is one of many such paeans TR penned. On this occasion, Roosevelt had been inspired by the unveiling of a statue of Lincoln created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in December 1908.
[W]hen men are thus entirely loyal to this country it is an outrage to discriminate, or permit discrimination against them, because of where their fathers or they themselves were born.
During World War I, many cases of terrible discrimination against Americans of German descent occurred, and this distressed Theodore Roosevelt mightily. This quote came from a public statement he made in opposition to one such act by vigilantes.
A book must be interesting to the particular reader at that particular time. But there are tens of thousands of interesting books, and some of them are sealed to some men and some are sealed to others; and some stir the soul at some given point of a man’s life and yet convey no message at other times. The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs should be. He must not hypocritically pretend to like what he does not like. Yet at the same time he must avoid that most unpleasant of all the indications of puffed-up vanity which consists in treating mere individual, and perhaps unfortunate, idiosyncrasy as a matter of pride.
Roosevelt wrote these words in his 1913 Autobiography. He loved books, and wrote about his reading habits with considerable frequency. His works and letters contain more reference to his reading habits than those of any other president.
