Author: cbanaszak@riponsociety.org

“Let us make it evident that we intend to do justice. Then let us make it equally evident that we will not tolerate injustice being done to us in return.” Speech at Minnesota State Fair September 2, 1901

“Labor Day is rightly an American holiday, for every American who is worth his salt works, and if he doesn’t there is something wrong with him.” Speech in Springfield, MA September 2, 1902

“I feel an impatient contempt for the man of words if he is merely a man of words. The great speech must always be the speech of a man with a great soul who has a thought worth putting behind words, and whose acts bear out the words he utters.” Letter to H.C. Lodge July…

“…no man should be held excusable if he does not perform what he promises, unless for the best and most sufficient reason.” The Strenuous Life 1899

Sometimes in life, both at school and afterwards, fortune will go against anyone, but if he just keeps pegging away and don’t lose his courage things always take a turn for the better in the end. Letter to his son Kermit December 2, 1904

“Centuries must pass before the wound not only scars over but becomes completely forgotten, and the memory becomes a bond of union and not a cause of division. It is our business to shorten the time as much as possible.” Letter to Sir George Otto Trevelyan January 1, 1908

“Americanism means the virtues of honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood – the virtues that made America.” Theodore Roosevelt Letter to the Congress of Constructive Patriotism January 26, 1917

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” “Citizen in a Republic,” Speech at the Sorbonne in Paris April 23, 1910