Inspirational Quotes By Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt
1858 - 1919
26th President of the United States

About Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as T.R., and to the public (but never to friends and intimates) as Teddy, was the twenty-sixth President of the United States. A leader of the Republican Party and of the Progressive Party, he was a Governor of New York and a professional historian, naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier. He is most famous for his personality: his energy, his vast range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" personality. Originating from a story from one of Roosevelt's hunting expeditions, Teddy bears are named after him.

As Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt prepared for and advocated war with Spain in 1898. He organized and helped command the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment – the Rough Riders – during the Spanish-American War. Returning to New York as a war hero, he was elected governor. An avid writer, his 35 books include works on outdoor life, natural history, the American frontier, political history, naval history, and his autobiography.

In 1901, as Vice President, the 42-year-old Roosevelt succeeded President William McKinley after McKinley's assassination by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. He is the youngest person to become President. He was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the dominant Republican Party into the Progressive camp. He distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved forty monopolistic corporations as a "trust buster". He was clear, however, to show he did not disagree with trusts and capitalism in principle but was only against corrupt, illegal practices. His "Square Deal" promised a fair shake for both the average citizen (through regulation of railroad rates and pure food and drugs) and the businessmen. He was the first U.S. president to call for universal health care and national health insurance. As an outdoorsman, he promoted the conservation movement, emphasizing efficient use of natural resources. After 1906 he attacked big business and suggested the courts were biased against labor unions. In 1910, he broke with his friend and anointed successor William Howard Taft, but lost the Republican nomination to Taft and ran in the 1912 election on his own one-time Bull Moose ticket. He beat Taft in the popular vote and pulled so many Progressives out of the Republican Party that Democrat Woodrow Wilson won in 1912, and the conservative faction took control of the Republican Party for the next two decades.

Roosevelt negotiated for the U.S. to take control of the Panama Canal and its construction in 1904; he felt the Canal's completion was his most important and historically significant international achievement. He was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize, winning its Peace Prize in 1906, for negotiating the peace in the Russo-Japanese War.

Historian Thomas Bailey, who disagreed with Roosevelt's policies, nevertheless concluded, "Roosevelt was a great personality, a great activist, a great preacher of the moralities, a great controversialist, a great showman. He dominated his era as he dominated conversations....the masses loved him; he proved to be a great popular idol and a great vote getter. "His image stands alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. Roosevelt has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.



The famous Theodore Roosevelt has inspired many. Enjoy this collection of inspirational quotes from Mr Roosevelt.

Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are.
~Theodore Roosevelt

In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
~Theodore Roosevelt

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius 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.
~Theodore Roosevelt

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.
~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

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

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

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

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
~Theodore Roosevelt

Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.
~Theodore Roosevelt

I always believe in going hard at everything, whether it is Latin or mathematics, boxing or football, but at the same time I want to keep the sense of proportion. It is never worth while to absolutely exhaust one's self or to take big chances unless for an adequate object. I want you to keep in training the faculties which would make you, if the need arose, able to put your last ounce of pluck and strength into a contest. But I do not want you to squander these qualities.
~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

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.
~Theodore Roosevelt

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss.
The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert.
The leader leads, and the boss drives.
~Theodore Roosevelt

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it.
~Theodore Roosevelt

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
~Theodore Roosevelt

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.
~Theodore Roosevelt

I keep my good health by having a very bad temper, kept under good control.
~Theodore Roosevelt

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind,
but great actions speak to all mankind.
Theodore Roosevelt

Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
~Theodore Roosevelt

With self-discipline most anything is possible.
~Theodore Roosevelt

A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.
~Theodore Roosevelt

In life as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard.
~Theodore Roosevelt

I am a part of everything that I have read.
~Theodore Roosevelt

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
~Theodore Roosevelt

I have only a second rate brain, but I think I have a capacity for action.
~Theodore Roosevelt

Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.
~Theodore Roosevelt

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

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
~Theodore Roosevelt

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