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.
While the private life of a public man is of secondary importance, it is certainly a mistake to assume that it is of no importance. Of course, excellence of private conduct—that is, domestic morality, punctuality in the payment of debts, being a good husband and father, being a good neighbor—do not, taken together, furnish adequate reason for reposing confidence in a man as a public servant. But lack of these qualities certainly does establish a presumption against any public man. One function of any great public leader should be to exert an influence upon the community at large, especially upon the young men of the community.
Roosevelt wrote these words in the Outlook on January 23, 1909, shortly before leaving the presidency. Whatever his strengths and weaknesses as a public politician, Roosevelt was remarkably scrupulous about his private behavior. He was, by any rational standard, holier than Caesar’s wife.
While they [the Republican bosses] do not like me, they dread you. You are the people that they dread. They dread the people themselves, and those bosses and the big special interests behind them made up their mind that they would rather see the Republican Party wrecked than see it come under the control of the people themselves. So I am not dealing with the Republican Party. There are only two ways you can vote this year. You can be progressive or reactionary. Whether you vote Republican or Democratic it does not make any difference, you are voting reactionary.
Roosevelt spoke these words shortly after he was shot by an assassin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 1912. After John Schrank shot TR at close range, the Bull Moose insisted upon going to the municipal auditorium as planned, where he delivered a speech of more than an hour’s duration, with blood dripping from his chest wound.
Why do Americans, who have been supposed to show at their best in self-government, seem to do worse in politics than in anything else except the newspaper business? As soon as they enter politics fairly good citizens turn crooks and really good citizens become impracticable cranks.
Toward the end of his life, Theodore Roosevelt became disenchanted with politics in the United States. In this letter, dated December 12, 1916, to an author whose book he admired, Roosevelt questioned what the American politics does to people.
Will you let me say a word of very sincere thanks to you for the eminent sanity, good humor and judgement you always display in pushing matters you have at heart? I have such awful times with reformers of the hysterical and sensational stamp, and yet i so thoroughly believe in reform , that I fairly revel in dealing with anyone like you.
President Roosevelt writes to Jane Addams of Hull House on January 24, 1906, about her tactics as a reformer.
Wise labor legislation for the city of Washington would be a good thing in itself, and it would be a far better thing, because a standard would thereby be a set for the country as a whole.
Theodore Roosevelt explains why Washington, D.C. should lead the way and provide a model for labor legislation, in his 1903 speech to the wage-worker and tiller of the soil.
Wise laws and fearless and upright administration of the laws can give the opportunity for such prosperity as we see about us. But that is all that they can do. When the conditions have been created which make prosperity possible, then each individual man must achieve it for himself by his own energy and thrift and business intelligence.
Roosevelt spoke these words at Providence, Rhode Island, on August 23, 1902, just as he was reaching his stride as president. He was never a socialist, but as a Hamiltonian he believed that government must play a role in encouraging economic activity and—carefully—regulating its excesses.
With all my heart I believe in the joy of living; but those who achieve it do not seek it as an end in itself, but as a seized and prized incident of hard work well done and of risk and danger never wantonly courted, but never shirked when duty commands that they be faced.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote this near the end of his life, looking back, in an article in the October 1918 issue of the Metropolitan, on all that he had achieved. The statement emphasizes his commitment to hard work and duty, the twin cornerstones of his life.
With all volunteer troops, and I am inclined to think with regulars, too, in time of trial, the best work can be got out of the men only if the officers endure the same hardships and face the same risks.
During the 1898 Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt prided himself on close relationships with his troops, and suggested that their mutual admiration for each other was based in part on his willingness to share in their experiences rather than to lord it over them. This quote is from his account of the war, entitled The Rough Riders.
With every death penalty I am certain to have distressing interviews which aggregate hours in length; for every man, however gad, has someone to whom he has shown a good side, and usually some poor creature, mother, wife or daughter, who perhaps has been ill-treated in the past, but who as the last awful moment approaches comes to me in terror and anguish, firm in the belief that just this once I will pardon the criminal no matter what he has done; for to them his awful fate is the one single fact in the entire universe.
Roosevelt wrote these words to his Kansas friend William Allen White on June 12, 1900. At the time Roosevelt was Governor of New York. One of his duties was to meet with the friends and families of men (and a few women) who were on death row.
With infinite labor and by the exercise of a good deal of tact and judgement–if I do say so myself–I have finally gotten the Japanese and Russians to agree to meet to discuss the terms of peace.
In June of 1905, President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit that he was lucky to get away on vacation recently to their cabin at Pine Knot, as he has also been deep in negotiations between Russia and Japan, which would later win him the Nobel Prize.
With most men courage is largely an acquired habit…
Excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s book, “The Strenuous Life.”
With the life I have led it is unlikely that I shall retain vigor to a very advanced age, and I want to be a man of action as long as I can.
Roosevelt wrote these words as he transitioned out of the presidency and planned his trip to Africa. He remained a man of action to his last day, January 6, 1919.
Woe to all of us if ever as a people we grow to condone evil because it is successful.
Excerpt, “The Strenuous Life.”
Women should have access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.
From Chapter 5 of Roosevelt’s autobiography Applied Idealism
Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.
Typed excerpt from Chapter V of Theodore Roosevelt’s Autobiography, Applied Idealism, in which he discusses gender relations and roles in society.
Work and love, using each in its broadest sense – work, the quality which makes a man ashamed not to be able to pull his own weight, not to do for himself as well as for others without being beholden to anyone for what he is doing; work, no man is happy if he does not work.
President Roosevelt speaks to the railroad branch of the YMCA in Topeka, Kansas, on “decent living and high ideals.” He praises them for their character, strength, and courage. Roosevelt also discusses the YMCA’s mission and how it helps to develop the character of young men. He also discusses his hopes for the future.
Work, the capacity for work, is absolutely necessary; and no man’s life is full, no man can be said to live in the true sense of the word if he does not work.
President Roosevelt speaks to the railroad branch of the YMCA in Topeka, Kansas, on “decent living and high ideals.” He praises them for their character, strength, and courage. Roosevelt also discusses the YMCA’s mission and how it helps to develop the character of young men. He also discusses his hopes for the future.
Write no matter how tired you are, no matter how inconvenient it is; write if you’re smashed up in a hospital; write when you are doing your most dangerous stints; write when your work is most irksome and disheartening; write all the time! Write enough letters to allow for half being lost.
Theodore Roosevelt encourages Quentin Roosevelt to write more often to his family and fiance, Flora Whitney. He cautions that as an “infrequent correspondent,” Quentin could lose Flora. Quentin should write interesting and love letters at least three times per week under all circumstances. There should be enough letters to allow for half of them to be lost.
