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.
A finer body of men has never been gathered by any nation than the men who have done the work of building the Panama Canal; the conditions under which they have lived and have done their work have been better than in any similar work ever undertaken in the tropics; they have all felt an eager pride in their work; and they have made not only America but the whole world their debtors by what they have accomplished.
In Theodore Roosevelt’s Autobiography, he emphasizes the international significance of the Panama Canal and thanks those men whose strenuous work has made the canal possible.
A flatterer is not a good companion for any man; and the public man who rises only by flattering his constituents is just as unsafe a companion for them.
This piece of wisdom from Theodore Roosevelt was written in 1911, as he was contemplating his political future in regards to the presidential race in 1912.
A foolish optimist is only less noxious that an utter pessimist.
Law of Civilization and Decay
A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy …
The Nation and the States, speech before the Colorado Legislature, August 29, 1910
A great many young fellows have an idea that the life of a ranchman, from its very hardships and risks, must have a certain romantic attraction to it…but the romance evaporates after a couple of months spent in a muddy dugout with no amusements whatsoever, and on a steady diet of rancid bacon, sodden biscuits and alkali water.
Excerpt from a piece Theodore Roosevelt wrote for Harper’s Weekly in January 1886.
A great university like this has two especial functions. The first is to produce a small number of scholars of the highest rank, a small number of men who, in science and literature, or in art, will do productive work of the first class. The second is to send out into the world a very large number of men who never could achieve, and who ought not to try to achieve, such a position in the field of scholarship, but whose energies are to be felt in every other form of activity; and who should go out from our doors with the balanced development of body, of mind, and above all of character, which shall fit them to do work both honorable and efficient.
Roosevelt spoke these words at his alma mater, Harvard, on June 28, 1905. The former undergraduate was now the President of the United States. Although he could easily have become a scholar of the first rank, had he chosen that path, undoubtedly he regarded himself as a strenuous exemplar of the second type of Harvard graduate.
A heavily progressive inheritance tax–national and (heavy) only on really great fortunes going to single individuals–would be far preferable to a national income tax.
Excerpt, letter to Henry Cabot Lodge and Anna Lodge, September 10, 1909.
A heavy moral obligation rests upon the man of means and upon the man of education to do their full duty by their country. On no class does this obligation rest more heavily than upon the men with a collegiate education, the men who are graduates of our universities. Their education gives them no right to feel the least superiority over any of their fellow citizens; but it certainly ought to make them feel that they should stand foremost in the honorable effort to serve the public.
During Roosevelt’s lifetime only a small percentage of Americans received a college education. Roosevelt graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1880. All of his life, Roosevelt subscribed to the principle that from those to whom much has been given, much will be expected.
A hunter should not refrain from comfort of a wholesome sort when it is obtainable.
While Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed roughing it, in his book, Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter, he talks about how welcome little luxuries were when hunting with a wagon, from a change of clothes to tents to reading material.
A large number of young men from the cities and from the country districts of the East have recently taken to ranching. Many apparently think that this is a business needing no especial skill or training on the part of those who take it up. A greater mistake could not be made. All over the plains there are now plenty of skilled cowhands—men who have been all their lives in the saddle, and who know every trait of the cattle they have to guard, and every phase of the wild life of the wilderness. An outsider, to compete with these men, must not only be naturally well fitted for the life, but he must also spend at least two years in downright hard drudgery learning the business. A great many young fellows—including, by the way, quite a fair proportion of clergymen’s sons—have an idea that the life of a ranchman, from its very hardships and risks, must have a certain romantic attraction to it. So it has; but it is wonderful; how the romance evaporates for many of these same young fellows after a couple of months spent in a muddy dug-out, with no amusements whatever, and on a steady diet of rancid bacon, sodden biscuits, and alkali water.
Roosevelt wrote this passage in an article in Harper’s Weekly in 1886, just as he was finding his stride as a Dakota cowboy and rancher. There is a certain defensiveness in his tone: he was, after all, a privileged young man from the East who found the hardships of ranch life romantic.
A lie is no more to be excused in politics than out of politics.
Theodore Roosevelt never held a politician to a different standard than any other citizen.
A long experience in politics has taught me that one must never dismiss any accusations as impossible of verification, because both in public life as in private life a man of the very highest repute will occasionally go wrong.
Excerpt from a letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Ray Stannard Baker written on July 4, 1903. Roosevelt also knows the danger of the “utterly baseless” gossip along the frontier.
A man can be freed from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose.
Theodore Roosevelt defined the values of the “strenuous life” in his famous speech before the Hamilton Club, April 10, 1899.
A man is of no use whatever on a cattle ranch, on the contrary he is a source of expense and trouble, unless he is a first-class rider and knows the West.
Through correspondence with Anna, Mrs. Monson has requested a ranch to which she can send her boy. President Roosevelt responds, explaining that a cattle ranch is not a good place for an untrained eastern boy with some “temptation to drink.”
A man is worthless unless he has in him a lofty devotion to an ideal, and he is worthless also unless he strives to realize this ideal by practical methods.
Roosevelt wrote these words in the Outlook on July 28, 1900. The politician Roosevelt believed that he would be respected even by those who disagreed with his policies if he were true to his word, if he said what he intended to do and then did what he said.
A man must think well before he marries. He must be a tender and considerate husband and realize that there is no other human being to whom he owes so much of love and regard and consideration as he does to the woman who with pain bears and with labor rears the children that are his.
Theodore Roosevelt considered himself an extraordinarily fortunate man to have had a worthy life partner in Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt. Theirs was a loving marriage which survived the stresses of the presidency intact.
A man of very strong feelings and convictions in political life is almost sure to make an even larger number of violent enemies than of attached friends.
Theodore Roosevelt is proud that his sons, and hopefully grandsons, have attended Groton School. However, he cannot make a speech at this time as he is out of touch with public opinion and doubts he can do any good. Roosevelt’s schedule is also filled with “enormous correspondence and innumerable demands.” He’s also gradually getting over the health impact of his Brazilian trip.
A man who has taken an active part in the political life of a great city possesses an incalculable advantage over his fellow-citizens who have not so taken part, because normally he has more understanding than they can possibly have of the attitude of mind, the passions, prejudices, hopes, and animosities of his fellow-citizens, with whom he would not ordinarily be brought into business or social contact.
The Roosevelt family placed a premium on duty, especially civic duty. Roosevelt learned early in his career in the New York Assembly that those who were the least like him could teach him the most. This quote is from his January 1900 Century magazine article “Fellow-Feeling as a Political Factor.”
