The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. 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. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
More Quotes from Theodore Roosevelt:
A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.Theodore Roosevelt
the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight. . . It should be the growing nation with a future which takes the long look ahead.
Theodore Roosevelt
To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
Theodore Roosevelt
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
Theodore Roosevelt
Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.
Theodore Roosevelt
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Based on Topics: America Quotes, Citizen Quotes, Loyalty Quotes, Truth QuotesBased on Keywords: servile, treasonable, unpatriotic
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