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Mistakes
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The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Multiculturalism
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There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100 % Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Obedience
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Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Opinion
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I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Patriotism
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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 to, and less than that no man shall have.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Some reformers may urge that in the ages distant future, patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present the man who loves other countries as much as he does his own is quite as noxious a member of society as the man who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of home.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Peace
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The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Politics
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No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer present or not guilty.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Power
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The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
-Theodore Roosevelt, Labor Day speech at Syracuse, NY, September 7, 1903
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Presidency
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The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. 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. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
-Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
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Purpose
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Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Reason
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No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Right, Rightness
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Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Risk
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It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Sacrifice
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The men and women who have the right ideals... are those who have the courage to strive for the happiness which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice, and those whose joy in life springs in part from power of work and sense of duty.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Strength
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Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting, but never hit soft.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Struggle
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It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, 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 short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows 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 know neither victory nor defeat.
-Theodore Roosevelt, speech titled Citizen in a Republic delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
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Success & Failure
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Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell em, Certainly I can! -- and get busy and find out how to do it.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Sympathy
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No man needs sympathy because he has to work. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Unions
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It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.
-Theodore Roosevelt
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Books by and about Theodore Roosevelt