Theodore Roosevelt Quotes - Page 4

• A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Graduation, Senior, Education

  "Art of Communicating Ideas". Book by William Joseph Grace, p. 389, 1952.

  74 Copy quote

• There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Book, Men, Practice

  The Man with the Muck-rake, delivered 14 April 1906

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• There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done ... Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Political, Done, Corporations

  Theodore Roosevelt (1941). “Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia”

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• At the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea is not for immunity to, but for the most unsparing exposure of, the politician who betrays his trust, of the big business man who makes or spends his fortune in illegitimate or corrupt ways. There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal; but remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Fashion, Business, Men

  The Man with the Muck-rake, delivered 14 April 1906

  15 Copy quote

• Unrestrained greed means the ruin of the great woods and the drying up of the sources of the rivers.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Mean, Rivers, Greed

  Theodore Roosevelt (1899). “The Rough Riders: An Autobiography”, p.568, Library of America

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• We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when any one engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Business, Squares, People

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “In the Words of Theodore Roosevelt: Quotations from the Man in the Arena”, p.59, Cornell University Press

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• In the long run, the most unpleasant truth is a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Running, Long, Truth Is

  Theodore Roosevelt (2016). “Theodore Roosevelt's Words of Wit and Wisdom”, p.16, Chartwell

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• The very reason why we object to state ownership, that it puts a stop to individual initiative and to the healthy development of personal responsibility, is the reason why we object to an unsupervised, unchecked monopolistic control in private hands. We urge control and supervision by the nation as an antidote to the movement for state socialism. Those who advocate total lack of regulation, those who advocate lawlessness in the business world, themselves give the strongest impulse to what I believe would be the deadening movement toward unadulterated state socialism.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Wisdom, Believe, Responsibility

  Theodore Roosevelt (2006). “History as Literature and Other Essays”, p.187, Cosimo, Inc.

  13 Copy quote

• The joy of living is his who has the heart to demand it. Life is a great adventure, and I want to say to you, accept it in such a spirit.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Heart, Adventure, Joy

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• Profanity is the parlance of the fool. Why curse when there is such a magnificent language with which to discourse?

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, Fool, Language

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• One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called "weasel words."

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Presidential, Use, Tendencies

  Speech, St. Louis, Mo., 31 May 1916. The Oxford English Dictionary documents usage of the term weasel word as early as 1900.

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• To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Leadership, Education, Business

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• The man who holds that every human right is secondary to his profit must now give way to the advocate of human welfare.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Giving, Way

  Speech, Osawatomie, Kan., 31 Aug. 1910

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• 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

  Inspirational, Relationship, Leadership

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.75, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  31 Copy quote

• The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Dream, Regret, Age

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.13, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  37 Copy quote

• Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Attitude, Men, Oysters

  50 Copy quote

• Everyone loves justice in the affairs of another.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Justice, Affair, One Love

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• When 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

  Life, Motivational, Success

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.13, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn't doing his part as an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. . . We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Loyalty, Men, America

  Theodore Roosevelt (1941). “Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia”

  49 Copy quote

• The Constitution guarantees protection to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Law, Giving, Political

  Theodore Roosevelt (2004). “Letters and Speeches”

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• In a civilized and cultivated country wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen. the excellent people who protest against all hunting, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wild life, are ignorant of the fact that in reality the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total extermination.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Animal, Reality

  THEODORE ROOSEVELT (2015). “The Deer Family”, p.81, Loose Cannon

  15 Copy quote

• It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Children, President, Use

  Theodore Roosevelt, Paul H. Jeffers (1998). “The Bully Pulpit: A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations”, p.23, Taylor Trade Publications

  12 Copy quote

• We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the business man is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Practice, Wish

  Address by Theodore Roosevelt Before The Convention Of The National Progressive Party in Chicago, www.ssa.gov. August 1912.

  12 Copy quote

• If a strong man has not in him the lift toward lofty things, his strength makes him only a curse to himself and his neighbor.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Leadership, Strong, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (1910). “Works: The strenuous life”

  3 Copy quote

• Anything that encourages pauperism, anything that relaxes the manly fiber and lowers self-respect, is an unmixed evil.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Self, Evil, Relax

  Theodore Roosevelt (1901). “The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses”

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