Theodore Roosevelt, also known as Teddy Roosevelt and TR, was the 26th president of the United States (1901–09) and a novelist, naturalist, and soldier. His quotes are best known as ” Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership”. He was born on October 27, 1858, in New York, New York, and died on January 6, 1919, in Oyster Bay, New York.
In tensions between big business and labour, he increased the presidency’s and the federal government’s powers in favour of the public interest, and directed the country toward a more active position in world affairs, especially in Europe and Asia.
Table of Contents
Teddy Roosevelt quotes
1.
“There is only one quality worse than hardness
of heart and that is softness of head”
-Theodore Roosevelt
2.
“With self-discipline,
almost anything is possible.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
3.
“People don’t care how much you know until
they know how much you care.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
4.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick,
you will go far”
-Theodore Roosevelt quotes
5.
“When you play, play hard;
when you work,
don’t play at all.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
6.
“Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
7.
“Believe you can and
you’re halfway there.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
8.
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
9.
“Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
10.
“All the resources we need
are in the mind”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
11.
“Order without liberty and liberty
without order are equally destructive.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
12.
“Courage is not having the strength to go on;
it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
13.
“It is hard to fail,
but it is worse never
to have tried to succeed.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
14.
“The reactionary is always
willing to take
a progressive attitude
on any issue that is dead.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
15.
“Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
16.
“A people without children
would face a hopeless future;
a country without trees
is almost as helpless.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
17.
“No man may poison
the people for his private profit”.
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
18.
“Freedom from effort in the present merely means
that there has been effort stored up in the past.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
19.
“The man who makes no mistakes
does not usually make anything”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
20.
“Sometimes in life, both at school and afterward,
fortune will go against anyone,’
but if he just keeps pegging away
and don’t lose his courage things always
take a turn for the better in the end.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
21.
“Working women have the same need to protection
those working men have;
the ballot is as necessary for one class as to the other;
we do not believe that with the two sexes there is identity of function;
but we do believe there should be equality of right.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
22.
“Whenever you are asked
if you can do a job, tell ’em,
‘Certainly, I can!’ Then get busy
and find out how to do it.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
23.
“When you’re
at the end of your rope,
tie a knot and hold on.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
24.
“It behooves every man to remember that
the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance,
and that, in the end, progress is accomplished
by the man who does things.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
25.
“Keep your eyes on the stars,
and your feet on the ground.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
26.
“A true forest is not merely
a storehouse full of wood,
but, as it were,
a factory of wood.“
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
27.
“I don’t always get shot during the middle of a speech,
but when I do, I finish the damn speech.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
28.
“A vote is like a rifle;
its usefulness depends upon
the character of the user.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
29.
“In life, as in a football game,
the principle to follow is,
hit the line hard.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
30.
“The men and women who have the right ideals,
are those who have the courage to strive for the happiness
which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice,
and those whose joy in life springs in part
from the power of work and sense of duty.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
31.
“It is no use to preach to [children]
if you do not act decently yourself.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
32.
“It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
33.
“The only man who never makes mistakes is
the man who never does anything.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
34.
“No one cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
35.
“Conservation and rural-life policies are
really two sides of the same policy;
and down at the bottom this policy rests
upon the fundamental law
that neither man nor nation can prosper unless,
in dealing with the present,
thought is steadily given for the future.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
36.
“Don’t hit at all
if it is honourably possible to avoid hitting,
but never hit soft.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
37.
“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is
the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
38.
“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is
good enough to be given a square deal afterward.
More than that no man is entitled to,
and less than that no man shall have.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
39.
“Our chief usefulness to humanity rests
on our combining power with high purpose.
Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity,
and high purpose by itself is utterly useless
if the power to put it into effect is lacking.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
40.
“I never keep boys waiting.
It’s a hard trial for a boy to wait.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
41.
“Courage isn’t the absence of fear,
it’s the choice that something else
is greater than that fear.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
42.
“If I must choose
between peace and righteousness,
I choose righteousness”
-Theodore Roosevelt
43.
“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much
unless you do what’s right.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
44.
“The one thing
I want to leave my children
is an Honorable name.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
45.
“It is hard to fail,
but it is worse never
to have tried to succeed.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
46.
“For unflagging interest and enjoyment,
a household of children,
if things go reasonably well,
certainly makes all other forms of success
and achievement loses their
importance by comparison.”
–Teddy Roosevelt quotes
47.
“With self discipline most
anything is possible.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes on leadership
48
“To educate a person in the mind
but not in morals is
to educate a menace to society.“
-Theodore Roosevelt quotes on leadership
49.
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss.
The leader leads, and the boss drives.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
50.
“Nothing in the world is worth having or
worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.
I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life.
I have envied a great many people who
led difficult lives and led them well.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
51.
“Conservation means development as much as it does protection.
I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop
and use the natural resources of our land;
but I do not recognize the right to waste them,
or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.“
-Theodore Roosevelt quotes on leadership
52.
” To announce that there must be no criticism of the president,
or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile,
but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
53.
“Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
54.
“It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
55.
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again;
because there is not effort without error and shortcomings;
but who does actually strive to do the deed;
who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion,
who spends himself in a worthy cause,
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst,
if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt quotes on leadership
56.
“Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
57.
“Be practical as well as generous in your ideals.
Keep your eyes on the stars,
but remember to keep your feet on the ground.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
58.
“I am only an average man,
but I work harder at it
than the average man.”
-Theodore Roosevelt quotes on leadership
59.
“If you could kick the person in the pants
responsible for most of your trouble,
you wouldn’t sit for a month.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
60.
“The best executive is one
who has sense enough to pick good people
to do what he wants done,
and self-restraint enough to keep
from meddling with them
while they do it.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
61.
“In any moment of decision,
the best thing you can do is the right thing,
the next best thing is the wrong thing,
and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
62.
“Defenders of the short-sighted menwho in their greed and selfishness will,
if permitted, rob our country of half its charm
by their reckless extermination of all useful and
beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them
by saying the “the game belongs to the people.
So it does; and not merely to the people now alive,
but to the unborn people. “
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
63.
“The “greatest good for the greatest number” applies
to the number within the womb of time, compared to
which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
64.
“Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations,
bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting
the heritage of these unborn generations.
The movement for the conservation of wildlife and
the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources
are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.“
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
65.
“Old age is like everything else.
To make a success of it,
you’ve got to start young.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
66.
“We must remember not to judge any public servant by any one act,
and especially should we beware of attacking the men
who are merely the occasions and not the cause of the disaster.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
67.
“The boy who is going to make
a great man must not make up his mind merely
to overcome a thousand obstacles,
but to win in spite of
a thousand repulses and defeats.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
68.
“Optimism is a good characteristic,
but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness.
We are prone to speak of the resources of
this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
69.
“Dreams are a dime a dozen.
It’s their execution that counts”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
70.
“I am a part of everything
that I have read.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
71.
“Get action.
Seize the moment.
Man was never intended
to become an oyster.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
72.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure,
than to take rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much,
because they live in the gray twilight
that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
73.
“We are face to face with our destiny and
we must meet it with high and resolute courage.
For us is the life of action,
of strenuous performance of duty;
let us live in the harness, striving mightily;
let us rather run the risk of wearing out
than rusting out.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
74.
“The things that will destroy America
are prosperity at any price, peace at any price,
safety first instead of duty first and
love of soft living and
the get-rich-quick theory of life.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
75.
“We of an older generation can get along with what we have,
though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood
you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man
so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want,
you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted…
So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day reaps without sowing,
and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal
whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
76.
“Nothing worth having comes easy.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
77.
“I am an American; free born and free bred,
where I acknowledge no man as my superior,
except for his own worth, or as my inferior,
except for his own demerit.“
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
78.
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success
is knowing how to get along with people.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
79.
“No man is worth his salt who is not ready
at all times to risk his well-being,
to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
80.
“I took the canal zone and let congress debate,
and while the debate goes on the canal does also”
-Theodore Roosevelt
81.
“Remember always that the man who does a thing
so that it is worth doing is always a man who does his work for the work’s sake.
A scientific man, a writer, a historian, an artist,
can only be a good man of science, a first-class artist, a first-class writer,
if he does his work for the sake of doing it well.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
82.
“There can be no greater issue than
that of conservation in this country.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
83.
“There is no effort
without error and shortcoming.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
84.
“Every immigrant who comes here should be required
within five years to learn English or leave the country.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
85.
“There has never yet been a man in our history
who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
86.
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure,
than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much or suffer much,
because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.“
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
87.
” Far and away the best prize that life offers is
the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
88.
“Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind,
but great actions speak to all mankind.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
89.
“We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood.
We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage,
of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking
the rough work that must always be done.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
90.
“I cannot consent to take the position that the door of hope ,
the door of opportunity is to be shut upon any man,
no matter how worthy, purely upon the grounds of race or color.
Such an attitude would, according
to my convictions, be fundamentally wrong.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
91.
“The conservation of natural resources is
the fundamental problem.
Unless we solve that problem
it will avail us little to solve all others.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
92.
“Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness,
but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as
it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor
an individual can surrender conscience to another’s keeping.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
93.
“Complaining about a problem without
posing a solution is called whining.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
94.
“I don’t pity any man who does hard work worth doing.
I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work,
at whichever end of the social scale
he may regard himself as being.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
95.
“Patriotism means to stand by the country.
It Does not mean to stand by the President.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Best Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
96.
“We must show, not merely in great crises,
but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence,
of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal,
which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington,
which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
97.
“Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with
those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much,
because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
98.
“The Strenuous Life” “Is America a weakling, to shrink
from the work of the great world powers?
No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent
and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand.
Our nation, glorious in youth and strength,
looks into the future with eager eyes and
rejoices as a strong man to run a race.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
99.
“No man is above the law,
and no man is below it.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
100.
“A vote is like a rifle,
its usefulness depends upon
the character of the user.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
101.
“Big jobs usually go to the men
who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
102.
“A man who has never gone to school
may steal a freight car,
but if he has a university education,
he may steal the whole railroad.“
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
103.
“In the presence of infinite might and infinite wisdom,
the strength of the strongest man is but weakness,
and the keenest of mortal eyes see but dimly.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
104.
” Far better it is to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure,
than to rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much,
because they live in that grey twilight
that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
-Teddy Roosevelt quotes on leadership
105.
“My hat’s in the ring.
The fight is on and I’m stripped to the buff.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
106.
“Dreams are a dime a dozen.
it’s their execution that counts.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
107.
“If a man does not have an idea
and try to live up to it,
then he becomes a mean,
base, and sordid creature,
no matter how successful.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
108.
“Far and away the best prize that
life has to offer is the chance
to work hard at work worth doing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
109.
“A great democracy has got to be progressive,
or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
110.
“This country will not be a permanently good place
for any of us to live in unless
make it a reasonably good place
for all of us to live in.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
111.
“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much
unless you do what’s right.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
112.
“The reason fat men are good natured is
they can neither fight nor run.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
113.
“No man needs sympathy because he has to work,
because he has a burden to carry.
Far and away the best prize that life offers is
the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
114.
“Old age is like everything else.
To make a success of it,
you’ve got to start young.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
115.
“To sit home, read one’s favorite paper,
and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy,
but it is markedly ineffective.
It is what evil men count upon the good men’s doing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
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FAQ on Teddy Roosevelt:
When was Theodore Roosevelt born and when did he die?
Teddy Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in the United States. At the age of 60, he died on January 6, 1919.
Where did Theodore Roosevelt get his education?
Teddy Roosevelt attended Harvard College and Columbia Law School, but did not complete his studies.
How did Theodore Roosevelt become famous?
Theodore Roosevelt became a national hero for his involvement in the Spanish-American War, especially as the commander of the Rough Riders regiment, despite having been a public servant for nearly two decades. From 1901 to 1909, he served as President of the United States.