Wordy Wednesday: Teddy Roosevelt

Remember a century and a half ago when I decided to try to do Wordy Wednesdays as an attempt to have at least one weekly post during my hectic school year? Well as you can see, I’ve failed miserably and have barely blogged since being back at school, but I’m really trying to get back into the swing of things.

While I’ll admit to know very little of his presidency and competence as a leader, many of his philosophies strongly reflect my own, and I find inspiration in his political career that began with so many failures but ended with the highest office in the United States. Also, how could you not love a president that rode moose and had a badass tattoo on his chest?Without further ado, I present some of my favorite Teddy Roosevelt quotes.

• “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
• “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”
• “With self-discipline most anything is possible.”
• “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”
• “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. Fate has made that choice for us. The only question is whether we will play the part well or badly.”
• “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
• “A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
• “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.”
• “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
• “Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.”
• “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.”
• “Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.”
• “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on”
• “Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.”
• “Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.”
• “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 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.”
• “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.”
• “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.”
• “Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.”
• “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. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. 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. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

couragefaithquotesteddy roosevelttheodore rooseveltwordy wednesday