Theodore Roosevelt Quotes on Man (29 Quotes)

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

War is not merely justifiable, but imperative upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, where peace can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of national welfare

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.

There never has been devised, and there never will be devised, any law which will enable a man to succeed save by the exercise of those qualities which have always been the prerequisites of success the qualities of hard work, of keen intelligence, of unflinching will.

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

Willful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death a sin for which there is no atonement. No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect.

No man is above the law, and no man is below it.

We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.

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 thembetter. 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 thedeed who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end thetriumph 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 withthose cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

The world wants the kind of men who do not shrink from temporary defeats in life but come again and wrestle triumph from defeat.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

Though conditions have grown puzzling in their complexity, though changes have been vast, yet we may remain absolutely sure of one thing that now as ever in the past, and as it will ever be in-the future, there can be no substitute for elemental virtues, for the elemental qualities to which we allude when we speak of a man, not only as a good man, but as emphatically a man. We can build up the standard of individual citizenship and individual well-being, we can raise the national standard and make it what it can and shall be made, only by each of us steadfastly keeping in mind that there can be no substitute for the world-old commonplace qualities of truth, justice, and courage, thrift, industry, common sense and genuine sympathy with the fellow feelings of others.

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

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.

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything. Do not be afraid to make mistakes providing you do not make the same one twice.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by sweat and blood who strives valiantly who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.

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.

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.

There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained.

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

Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

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 disaster.

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.