Delve a selection of Theodore Roosevelt quotes, provide a glimpse into the mind of a visionary leader that offering valuable lessons.
Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to as Teddy Roosevelt, served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. To get a glimpse into his dynamic personality, we gathered most memorable Theodore Roosevelt quotes.
Beyond his political career, he was also an accomplished writer, historian, and naturalist. Theodore Roosevelt quotes reflect not only his views on leadership and governance but also his deep appreciation for the natural world.
Join us as we explore the wisdom and influence of this visionary leader through a selection of 95 Theodore Roosevelt quotes. Witness his words continue to guide us today, transform the power of dedication, resilience, and leadership.
Theodore Roosevelt quotes inspirational
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
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.
Theodore Roosevelt
It is always better to be an original than an imitation.
Theodore Roosevelt
To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Theodore Roosevelt
The one quality which sets one man apart from another- the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity- is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness – it is self-discipline.
Theodore Roosevelt
With self-discipline all things are possible. Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream.
Theodore Roosevelt
Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference.
Theodore Roosevelt
What a man does for himself, dies with him. What a man does for his community lives long after he’s gone.
Theodore Roosevelt
If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.
Theodore Roosevelt
The mother is the one supreme asset of national life; she is more important by far than the successful statesman, or business man, or artist, or scientist.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes motivation
Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.
Theodore Roosevelt
Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort.
Theodore Roosevelt
Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.
Theodore Roosevelt
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt
Do something now. If not you, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?
Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Theodore Roosevelt
With great victory comes great sacrifice.
Theodore Roosevelt
Believe you can do it and you are halfway there.
Theodore Roosevelt
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
Courage Theodore Roosevelt quotes
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.
Theodore Roosevelt
Don’t foul, don’t flinch-hit the line hard.
Theodore Roosevelt
We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage.
Theodore Roosevelt
All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune-make for a finer, nobler type of manhood.
Theodore Roosevelt
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
It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
Theodore Roosevelt
What such a man needs is not courage but nerve control, cool headedness. This he can get only by practice.
Theodore Roosevelt
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…
Theodore Roosevelt
Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.
Theodore Roosevelt
We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes on leadership
Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Theodore Roosevelt
He who makes no mistakes makes no progress.
Theodore Roosevelt
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
Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.
Theodore Roosevelt
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
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
Theodore Roosevelt
The leader works in the open and the boss in covert.
Theodore Roosevelt
Appraisals are where you get together with your team leader and agree what an outstanding member of the team you are, how much your contribution has been valued, what massive potential you have and, in recognition of all this, would you mind having your salary halved.
Theodore Roosevelt
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
Washington, Lincoln … are men who, to my mind, stand as the types of what wide, progressive leadership should be.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt on success
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
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt
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
Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.
Theodore Roosevelt
The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.
Theodore Roosevelt
No, I’m not a good shot, but I shoot often.
Theodore Roosevelt
Courage is not having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don’t have the strength. Industry and determination can do anything that genius and advantage can do and many things that they cannot.
Theodore Roosevelt
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
Theodore Roosevelt
For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.
Theodore Roosevelt
The highest form of success comes 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.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes about patriotism
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country.
Theodore Roosevelt
It is patriotic to support him [president] insofar as he efficiently serves the country.
Theodore Roosevelt
When the time of danger comes, all Americans, whatever their social standing, whatever their creed, whatever the training they have received, no matter from what section of the country they have come, stand together as men, as Americans…
Theodore Roosevelt
…[All Americans] are content to face the same fate and do the same duties because fundamentally they all alike have the common purpose to serve the glorious flag of their common country.
Theodore Roosevelt
A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.
Theodore Roosevelt
Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
Theodore Roosevelt
It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.
Theodore Roosevelt
Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood – the virtues that made America.
Theodore Roosevelt
The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes on justice
Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.
Theodore Roosevelt
Everyone loves justice in the affairs of another.
Theodore Roosevelt
[Freemasonry] teaches not merely temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice, brotherly love, relief, and truth, but liberty, equality, and fraternity, and it denounces ignorance, superstition, bigotry, lust tyranny and despotism.
Theodore Roosevelt
The one absolute certain way to bring this nation to ruin … would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.
Theodore Roosevelt
I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service.
Theodore Roosevelt
It is both foolish and wicked to teach the average man who is not well off that some wrong or injustice has been done him, and that he should hope for redress elsewhere than in his own industry, honesty, and intelligence.
Theodore Roosevelt
We must diligently strive to make our young men decent, God-fearing, law-abiding, honor-loving, justice-doing and also fearless and strong.
Theodore Roosevelt
We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness.
Theodore Roosevelt
We cannot secure such loyalty unless we make this a country where men shall feel that they have justice and also where they shall feel that they are required to perform the duties imposed upon them.
Theodore Roosevelt
The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes on peace
If we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at the hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination of the world.
Theodore Roosevelt
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
Theodore Roosevelt
Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.
Theodore Roosevelt
The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.
Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Theodore Roosevelt
A just war is in the long run far better for a man’s soul than the most prosperous peace.
Theodore Roosevelt
Every expansion of civilization makes for peace. In other words, every expansion of a great civilized power means a victory for law, order, and righteousness.
Theodore Roosevelt
A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual.
Theodore Roosevelt
No triumph of peace is quite so great as the supreme triumphs of war.
Theodore Roosevelt
It is only the warlike power of a civilized people that can give peace to the world.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes on county
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
Theodore Roosevelt
There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all.
Theodore Roosevelt
This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.
Theodore Roosevelt
We have room for but one flag, the American flag…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
Theodore Roosevelt
A nation that still needs to distinguish between stealing an election, and stealing a new pair of shoes, is not completely civilized yet.
Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Theodore Roosevelt
Americans learn only from catastrophe and not from experience.
Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Theodore Roosevelt
The United States does not have a choice as to whether or not is will or will not play a great part in the world.
Theodore Roosevelt
Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt quotes critic
It’s not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of the deeds could have done better.
Theodore Roosevelt
The man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic — the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done.
Theodore Roosevelt
To announce there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand with the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Theodore Roosevelt
Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it.
Theodore Roosevelt
The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.
Theodore Roosevelt
Final thoughts
In concluding our exploration of Theodore Roosevelt quotes, we have delved into the wisdom and insight of a truly remarkable individual. His words, like the man himself, are timeless and continue to inspire and guide us today.
As we reflect on the wisdom shared within these selection of Theodore Roosevelt quotes, let us carry forward his spirit. Let embracing our own potential for leadership and service to our communities, country, and the planet.
We hope you have found inspiration, wisdom, and a deeper connection through our selection of Theodore Roosevelt quotes. Share these quotes with others, for in doing so, you not only honor Roosevelt’s memory but also spread the seeds of inspiration.
Thank you for joining us on this journey through Theodore Roosevelt quotes. May his words continue to inspire you to lead with courage and strive for a better and more just future for all.