Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was an American statesman, politician, conservationist, naturalist, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He is widely regarded as the first modern President of the United. Famous Theodore Roosevelt quotes will get you thinking, explode your motivation and bring the best out of you.
If you’re searching for famous quotations about life that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of famous George Washington quotes, best Abraham Lincoln quotes, and timeless Eleanor Roosevelt quotes.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are
Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.
Believe you can and you’re halfway there
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed
Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the choice that something else is greater than that fear.
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; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; 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 fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor 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
The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on
When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength
Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance
I am a part of everything that I have read
I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph
Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
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
I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!
To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society
The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground
Power invariably means both responsibility and danger.
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far
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
A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user
I am only an average man, but by George, I work harder at it than the average man.
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.
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.
Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.
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.
When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.
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
It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things
A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives
Unless a man is master of his soul, all other kinds of mastery amount to little.
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing
When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
With self discipline, almost anything is possible
Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as be seen as a people with such responsibilities.
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
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
The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.
Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones
Don’t hit a man at all if you can avoid it, but if you have to hit him, knock him out.
Nine tenths of wisdom is being wise in time
Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.
Old age is like everything else. To make it a success of it, you’ve got to start young
There are many qualities which we need in order to gain success, but the three above all for the lack of which no brilliancy and no genius can atone are Courage, Honesty and Common Sense
Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage
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.
I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character
A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy.
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
If I must choose between peace and righteousness, I choose righteousness.
This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country
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
A stream cannot rise larger than its source
All the resources we need are in the mind.
It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home
There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
If I must choose between peace and righteousness, I choose righteousness
Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
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
At sometime in our lives a devil dwells within us, causes heartbreaks, confusion and troubles, then dies.
All the resources we need are in the mind
It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.
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
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head
The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.
In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: hit the line hard
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 power of work and sense of duty.
Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.
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
To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
At sometime in our lives a devil dwells within us, causes heartbreaks, confusion and troubles, then dies
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far
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
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
