Personal Quotes

A square deal for every man; that is the only safe motto for the United States.

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

No other President ever enjoyed the presidency as I did.

Speak softly, and carry a big stick.

[announcing his intention to run for President again in 1912] My hat is in the ring. The fight is on and I am stripped to the buff.

[regarding the Badlands of North Dakota] They look like [Edgar Allan Poe] sounds.

[regretting his announcement that he would not run for a third term] I would gladly cut off my right hand if I could recant that statement.

[when his wife and mother died on the same day] The light has gone out of my life.

[his last words] May you always know how much I love Sagamore Hill.

[upon seeing a large section of forest that had been clearcut for lumber] I hope the son-of-a-bitch responsible for this burns in Hell!

A stream cannot rise larger than its source.

Americans learn only from catastrophe and not from experience.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.

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.

It is hard to fail. But it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.

In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don’t foul and don’t shirk, but hit the line hard.

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.

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.