.: Theodore Roosevelt Study
Mornings on Horseback-The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt- David McCullough
The Lion's Pride- Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War Edward J. Renehan Jr.
- “Justice among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love peace, but who love righteousness more than peace.”
- “Virtues are dust in a windy street unless back of th
em lie the strong and tender virtues of a family life based on the love of the man for the one woman and on their joyous and fearless acceptance of their common obligation to the children that are theirs.”
- “My business was to combine decency and efficiency; to be a thoroughly practical man of high ideals who did his best to reduce those ideals to actual practice.”
- “My duty was to stand with every one while he was right, and to stand against him when he went wrong.”
- “The law of worthy effort, the law of service for a worthy end, without regard to whether it brings leisure or pain, is the only right law of life.”
- “I have always had a horror of words that are not translated into deeds, of speech that does not result in action—in other word, I believe in realizable ideals and in realizing them, in preaching what can be practiced and then in practicingit.”
- “Nine-tenths of wisdom is to be wise in time, and at the right time.”
- “There can be no nobler cause for which to work than the peace of righteousness; and high honor is due those serene and lofty souls who with wisdom and courage, with high idealism tempered by sane facing of the actual facts of life, have striven to bring nearer the day when armed strife between nation and nation, between class and class, between man and man shall end throughout the world. Because this is true, it is also true that there are no men more ignoble or more foolish, no men whose actions are fraught with greater possibility of mischief to their country and to mankind, than those who exalt unrighteous peace as better than righteous war. The men who have stood highest in our history, as in the history of all countries, are those who scorned injustice, who were incapable of oppressing the weak, but who did not hesitate to draw the sward when to leave it undrawn meant inability to arrest triumphant wrong.”
- “The only safe rule is to promise little; and faithfully to keep every promise, to “speak softly and carry a big stick.”
- “Until people get it firmly fixed in their minds that peace is valuable chiefly as a means to righteousness, and that it can only be considered as an end when it also coincides with righteousness, we can do only a limited amount to advance its coming on this earth.”
- “The finest, and bravest, the best of our young men have sprung eagerly forward to face death for the sake of a high ideal. When these gallant boys, on the golden crest of life, gladly face death…shall not we who stay behind, who have not been found worthy of the great adventure…try to shape our lives so as to make this country a better place to live in?
- Virtues with the State for their Sphere of Action
- There must be the keenest sense of duty, and with it must go the joy of living.
- There must be shame at the thought of shirking the hard work of the world, and at the same time delight in the many-sided beauty of life.
- With soul of flame and temper of steel we must act as our coolest judgment bids us.
- We must exercise the largest charity towards the wrong-doer that is compatible with relentless war against the wrong-doing.
- We must be just to others, generous to others, and yet we must realize that it is a shameful and wicked thing not to withstand oppression with high heart and ready hand.
- With gentleness and tenderness there must go dauntless bravery and grim acceptance of labor and hardship and peril.
- All for each, and each for all, is a good motto; but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain himself as not to be a burden to others.
