Theodore Roosevelt Quotes About Evil

Quotes about: Evil

• No greater wrong can ever be done than to put a good man at the mercy of a bad, while telling him not to defend himself or his fellows; in no way can the success of evil be made surer or quicker.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Evil, Good Man

  Theodore Roosevelt (1894). “From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 - - v. 2. From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783”, U of Nebraska Press

• Certain rich men, whose lives are evil and corrupt, are the representatives of predatory wealth accumulated by all forms of inequity, from the oppression of wage workers to unfair methods of crushing out competition.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Crush, Men, Evil

• No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Life, Men, Evil

  In Works, Memorial edition (1925) vol. 15, p. 388 "Latitude and Longitude among Reformers"

• To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Home, Men, Evil

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “In the Words of Theodore Roosevelt: Quotations from the Man in the Arena”, p.77, Cornell University Press

• We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Believe, Fighting, Optimism

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.58, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• The forces that tend for evil are great and terrible, but the forces of truth and love and courage and honesty and generosity and sympathy are also stronger than ever before.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Honesty, Generosity, Evil

  The Man with the Muck-rake, delivered 14 April 1906

• Anything that encourages pauperism, anything that relaxes the manly fiber and lowers self-respect, is an unmixed evil.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Self, Evil, Relax

  Theodore Roosevelt (1901). “The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses”

• Envy is as evil a thing as arrogance.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Evil, Envy, Arrogance

  Theodore Roosevelt, Paul H. Jeffers (1998). “The Bully Pulpit: A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations”, p.45, Taylor Trade Publications

• Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck rake, speedily becomes, not a help but one of the most potent forces for evil.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  The Man with the Muck-rake, delivered 14 April 1906

• The best lesson that any people can learn is that there is no patent cure-all which will make the body politic perfect, and that any man who is able glibly to answer every question as to how to deal with the evils of the body politic is at best a foolish visionary and at worst an evil-minded quack.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, People, Evil

  Theodore Roosevelt (2006). “History as Literature and Other Essays”, p.191, Cosimo, Inc.

• There are always in life countless tendencies for good and for evil, and each succeeding generation sees some of these tendencies strengthened and some weakened; nor is it by any means always, alas! that the tendencies for evil are weakened and those for good strengthened. But during the last few decades there certainly have been some notable changes for good in boy life. The great growth in the love of athletic sports, for instance, while fraught with danger if it becomes one-sided and unhealthy, has beyond all question had an excellent effect in increased manliness.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Sports, Mean, Boys

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses”, p.73, Courier Corporation

• 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.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Book, Men, Practice

  The Man with the Muck-rake, delivered 14 April 1906

• There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle; but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Time, Men, Long

• Power always brings with it responsibility.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Responsibility, Evil, Good And Evil

  Theodore Roosevelt (1910). “The New Nationalism”, Best Books on

• Love of peace is common among weak, short-sighted, timid, and lazy persons; and on the other hand courage is found among many men of evil temper and bad character. Neither quality shall by itself avail. Justice among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love peace, but who love righteousness more than peace.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Love, Uplifting, Strong

  Theodore Roosevelt (2013). “Bully!”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

• War with evil; but show no spirit of malignity toward the man who may be responsible for the evil. Put it out of his power to do wrong.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, Men, Evil

  Theodore Roosevelt, Paul H. Jeffers (1998). “The Bully Pulpit: A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations”, p.47, Taylor Trade Publications

• We cannot afford merely to sit down and deplore the evils of city life as inevitable, when cities are constantly growing, both absolutely and relatively. We must set ourselves vigorously about the task of improving them; and this task is now well begun.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Cities, Evil, Tasks

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

• It [the Civil War] was a heroic struggle; and, as is inevitable with all such struggles, it had also a dark and terrible side. Very much was done of good, and much also of evil; and, as was inevitable in such a period of revolution, often the same man did both good and evil. For our great good fortune as a nation, we, the people of the United States as a whole, can now afford to forget the evil, or, at least, to remember it without bitterness, and to fix our eyes with pride only on the good that was accomplished.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, Struggle, Eye

• The plea of good intentions is not one that can be allowed to have much weight in passing historical judgment upon a man whose wrong-headedness and distorted way of looking at things produced, or helped to produce, such incalculable evil; there is a wide political applicability in the remark attributed to a famous Texan, to the effect that he might, in the end, pardon a man who shot him on purpose, but that he would surely never forgive one who did so accidentally.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Evil, Political

  Theodore Roosevelt (1899). “Thomas H. Benton”

• We can no more and no less afford to condone evil in the man of capital than evil in the man of no capital.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Evil, He Man

  The Man with the Muck-rake, delivered 14 April 1906

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