Theodore Roosevelt Quotes About Duty

Quotes about: Duty

• 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.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Truth, Mean

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.42, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Love, Inspirational, Wisdom

  Theodore Roosevelt (1954). “Letters: The days of Armageddon, 1909-1914”

• No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Community, President

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses”, p.61, Courier Corporation

• The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Military, Citizens, Weight

  Speech, New York, N.Y., 11 Nov. 1902

• When the time of danger comes, all Americans, whatever their social standing, whatever their creed, whatever the training they have received, no matter from what section of the country they have come, stand together as men, as Americans, and are content to face the same fate and do the same duties because fundamentally they all alike have the common purpose to serve the glorious flag of their common country.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Fate, Men

  Address at the Yale Alumni Dinner, The Oxford Club, Brooklyn, New York, www.theodore-roosevelt.com. March 03, 1899.

• Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly. This is true about Mr. Wilson now and it has been true about all our Presidents in the past. It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the President and about every one else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Loyalty, Past, Support

  Theodore Roosevelt (1941). “Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia”

• 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.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Nature, Mean, Land

  Theodore Roosevelt, Paul H. Jeffers (1998). “The Bully Pulpit: A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations”, p.32, Taylor Trade Publications

• Everything is un-American that tends either to government by a plutocracy or government by a mob. To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All privileges based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men merely because they are wealthy, are un-American-both of them equally so. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, America, Safety

• The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Needs, Corporations, Speak

  Theodore Roosevelt (1970). “Presidential Addresses and State Papers of Theodore Roosevelt”

• Rarely has any people enjoyed greater prosperity than we are now enjoying. For this we render heartfelt and solemn thanks to the Giver of Good; and we seek to praise Him -not by words only -but by deeds, by the way in which we do our duty to ourselves and to our fellow men.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, People, Heartfelt

• A man's usefulness depends on his living up to his ideals insofar as he can. It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune, make for a finer, nobler type of manhood. Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Iron, Joy

  Theodore Roosevelt (1955). “Theodore Roosevelt's America: Selections from the Writings of the Oyster Bay Naturalist”

• A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage... For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Running, Heart, Sacrifice

  Theodore Roosevelt (1926). “The Works of Theodore Roosevelt”

• 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

  Life, Courage, Spring

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.76, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• A really great people, proud and high spirited, would face all the disasters of war rather than purchase that base prosperity which is bought at the price of national honor.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, People, Honor

  Theodore Roosevelt (1910). “American ideals”

• For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Running, Army, Risk

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.51, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• The weakling and the coward cannot be saved by honesty alone; but without honesty the brave and able man is merely a civic wild beast who should be hunted down by every lover of righteousness. No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Honesty, Men, Community

  "The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses" by Theodore Roosevelt. "The Eighth and Ninth Commandments in Politics", 1910.

• Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  History, Joy, Fit

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.44, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• Great corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and duty to see that they work in harmony with these institutions.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Corporations, Harmony, Institutions

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Section 2 (of 2) of Supplemental Volume: Theodore Roosevelt, Supplement”, p.23, tredition

• The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for ... the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Home, Justice, Adoption

• Willful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement. No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Love, Men, Race

  United States. President (1901-1909 : Roosevelt), Theodore Roosevelt (1906). “Message of the President of the United States Communicated to the Two Houses of Congress at the Beginning of the Second Session of the Fifty-ninth Congress”

• I ask of each Mason, of each member, of each brother, that he shall remember ever that there is upon him a peculiar obligation to show himself in every respect a good citizen; for after all, the way he can best do his duty by the ancient order to which he belongs is by reflecting credit upon that order by way in which he performs his duty as a citizen of the United States.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Brother, Order, United States

• If there is any one duty which more than another we owe it to our children and our children's children to perform at once, it is to save the forests of this country, for they constitute the first and most important element in the conservation of the natural resources of this country.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Children, Tree

  Theodore Roosevelt (1910). “Presidential addresses and state papers”

• The true Christians are the true citizens, lofty of purpose, resolute in endeavor, ready for a hero's deeds, but never looking down on their task because it is cast in the day of small things; scornful of baseness, awake to their own duties as well as to their rights, following the higher law with reverence, and in this world doing all that in their power lies, so that when death comes they may feel that humanity is in some degree better because they lived.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Christian, Lying, Hero

• Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shrink neither.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Presidential, Given, Duty

  Theodore Roosevelt's address to the nation (March 4, 1905), as quoted in "Ten Memorable Inaugural Addresses", www.realclearpolitics.com. January 16, 2013.

• On the whole, we think that the greatest victories are yet to be won, the greatest deeds yet to be done, and that there are yet in store for our peoples, and for the causes that we uphold, grander triumphs than have ever yet been scored. But be this as it may, we gladly agree that the one plain duty of every man is to face the future as he faces the present, regardless of what it may have in store for him, turning toward the light as he sees the light, to play his part manfully, as a man among men.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Thinking, Greatest Victory

  Theodore Roosevelt (1903). “The Works of Theodore Roosevelt: American ideals and other essays, social and political”

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