The Quotes Page
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far"
So what is all this "speak softly and carry a big stick" stuff about? Well, when Theo was governor of New York, he had a few quarrels with the party leaders, especially with the one named Tom Platt. Mr. Platt threatened to "ruin" Theo, but our wonderful New York governor held out. Eventually, poor Mr. Platt gave in to Theo's demands.
A little excerpt from "Theodore Roosevelt, A Life" written by Mr. Nathan Miller says:
"Looking back upon his handling of the incident, Roosevelt
thought he 'never saw a bluff carried more resolutely through to
the final limit.' And writing to a friend a few days later, he
observed: 'I have always been fond of the West African
proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go
far" ' "
So the famous little quote that we always tack on to Theodore Roosevelt was actually a West African Proverb. Interesting you say? Well, sometimes life calls for a little help from other cultures, and Mr. Roosevelt here decided to choose West Africa. Hey. Those West African people are pretty smart! I'll have to go chat with one sometime! Anywho. Back to our subject on the going far with a big stick and speaking softly.
This little incident with Mr. Platt was not the only time Theo used his most famous quote. He also used it as part of his foreign policy when he became president. And hey...it worked, didn't it?!
The Square Deal Quotes
"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty,
decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense...we must treat each man on his
worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because
he is entitled to no more and should receive no less. The welfare of each of us
is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us."
New York State Fair, Syracuse, September 7, 1903
So just what is old Theo trying to tell us here. Well think about it. If someone else you knew was getting more of something than you, would you be jealous? I know I'd be jealous. So here, Mr. Roosevelt is just trying to lay out a plan so no one gets more or less than someone else. Everybody is equal. Thus, the Square Deal...none of that nice rounded corners stuff. Well, here are a few more quotes that have to do with Theo's Square Deal.
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be
given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than
that no man shall have."
Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903
"We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must
insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he
shall himself be given a square deal."
Letter to Sir Edward Gray, November 15, 1913
Women's Rights
Well, me being female and all, I definitely have to give it up to Theodore Roosevelt for fighting for women's rights. People say he was "in the forefront of thinking in his day" just because he stood up for the rights of those of the opposite sex. And if you didn't know, he even did his thesis at Harvard on women's rights. You go Theo.
"Viewed purely in the abstract, I think there can be no question that women
should have equal rights with men...especially as regards the laws relating to
marriage there should be the most absolute equality between the two sexes. I do
"The Practicability of Equalizing Men and Women before the Law,"
Senior thesis at Harvard, 1880
"Much can be done by law towards putting women on a footing of complete and
entire equal rights with man - including the right to vote, the right to hold and use
property, and the right to enter any profession she desires on the same terms as
the man...Women should have free access to every field of labor which they
care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be
paid as highly."
An Autobiography, 1913
You didn't do the work, so why are you criticizing it?
Here is another of Mr. Roosevelt's more famous quotes. It's about the man in the arena. I think I'll definitely have to agree with this one. If you didn't do the work yourself, don't go criticizing it pointing out every fault you see or what you think could have been done better. If you wanna criticize, get in there with the man who's doing the work. After that, people might value your opinion.
"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 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 and comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great
enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall
never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
Miscellaneous
Well, not all of us may agree on the viewpoints of Theodore Roosevelt, but he did have quite a few good ideas in his time. And all of these ideas were approached with intelligence and an air of confidence. Here are just a few other quotes spoken by the man himself. Enjoy.
"Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No!
The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean
in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with
eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race."
Letter to John Hay, American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, London, Written in
Washington, DC, June 7, 1897
"We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing
hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature
once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of
that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have
wasted...So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without
sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal
whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life."
"Arbor Day - A Message to the School-Children of the United States" April 15, 1907
"The worst of all fears is the fear of living."
An Autobiography, 1913
"Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but
only if they know when to stop raking the muck." "An epidemic in indiscriminate
assault upon character does not good, but very great harm." "There should be
relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil practice, whether in politics, in
business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man
who, on the platform, or in book, magazine or newspaper, with merciless severity
makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is
of use only if it is absolutely truthful."
Washington, DC, April 14, 1906
"I never keep boys waiting. It's a hard trial for a boy to wait."
"For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go
reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose
their importance by comparison."
An Autobiography, 1913
"Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but
remember to keep your feet on the ground."
The Groton School, Groton, MA, May 24, 1904
"I don't think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don't
think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more."... "Success - the real success -
does not depend upon the position you hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that
position."
University of Cambridge, England, May 26, 1910
"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if
permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all
useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the
game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but
to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the
number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an
insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids
us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these
unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger
movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially
democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."
A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916
"It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand at the heroic
level. But no nation has the root of greatness in it unless in time of need it can rise
to the heroic mood."
Fear God and Take Your Own Part, 1916
"A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward and even more
hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures
animals."..."What we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall
turn out to be a good American man."
"The American Boy," St. Nicholas Magazine, May 1900
"There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this
world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be
by the general recognition that the man's heart and soul, the man's worth and
actions, determine his standing."
Letter, Oyster Bay, NY, September 1, 1903
"If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean,
base and sordid creature, no matter how successful."
Letter to his son Kermit, quoted in Theodore Roosevelt by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, 1915
"There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are
going to have a good time as long as you live - I have no use for the sour-faced man
- and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to
work hard and do the things you set out to do."
Talk to schoolchildren in Oyster Bay, Christmastime 1898
"It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself."
Speech to Holy Name Society, Oyster Bay, August 16, 1903
"The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name." "It is hard to
fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
Chicago, IL, April 10, 1899
"I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds."
Oyster Bay, NY, July 7, 1915
"The object of government is the welfare of the people." "Conservation means
development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this
generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not
recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that
come after us."
"The New Nationalism" speech, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we
make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912
"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."
An Autobiography, 1913
"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."
Des Moines, Iowa, November 4, 1910
"Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes
foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible;
this is not so."
Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1907
"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country."
Confession of Faith Speech, Progressive National Convention,
Chicago, IL, August 6, 1912
"The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we
solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others."
Address to the Deep Waterway Convention, Memphis, TN, October 4, 1907
"There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to
'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually
ceased to be afraid."
An Autobiography, 1913
"To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair, but
that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the player
who 'hits the line hard.' "
Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY, October 1897
"Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready."
San Francisco, CA, May 13, 1903
"No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged
independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make
powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private
character."
An Autobiography, 1913
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we
make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched
out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to
his brother."
Pasadena, CA, May 8, 1903
"Don't hit at all if you can help it; don't hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if
you do hit him, put him to sleep."
New York City, February 17, 1899
"No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's
permission when we require him to obey it.""Obedience to the law is demanded as a
right; not asked as a favor."
Third Annual Message to Congress, December 7, 1903
"It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a
great dreamer."
Berkeley, CA, 1911
"The bulk of government is not legislation but administration." "Men can never escape
being governed. Either they must govern themselves or they must submit to being
governed by others."
Jamestown, VA, April 26, 1907
"This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in
jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country."
Memphis, TN, October 25, 1905
"Alone of human beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of equal honor
with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone down to the brink of the chasm of
darkness to bring back the children in whose hands rests the future of the years. "
The Great Adventure, 1918
"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere
smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility."
Abilene, KS, May 2, 1903
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