• “What we really need in this country is to treat the tariff as a business proposition from the standpoint of the interests of the country as a whole, and not from the standpoint of the temporary needs of any political party.”

    Speech in Logansport, Indiana
    September 23, 1902

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – April 22, 2025

  • “What we want is what I have already said—a square deal in the tariff as in everything else; a square deal for the wage earner, a square deal for the employer, and a square deal for the general public.”

    Outlook
    January 28, 1911

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – April 15, 2025

  • We have got but one life here and what comes after it we cannot certainly tell, but it pays, no matter what comes after it, to try and do things, to accomplish things in this life, and not merely to have a soft and pleasant time. It is the doing of things after all which really makes life worth living.

    Letter to Bellamy Storer
    1899

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – April 8, 2025

  • “We are not building this country of ours for a day. It is to last through the ages.”

    Address in Sacramento, California
    May 19, 1903

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – April 1, 2025

  • “Reformers, if they are to do well, must look both backward and forward; must be bold and yet must exercise prudence and caution in all they do.”

    Introduction to The Wisconsin Idea
    1912

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – March 25, 2025

  • “The really valuable—the invaluable—reform is that which in actual practice works.”

    Metropolitan
    May 1917

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – March 18, 2025

  • “The world is getting better, but it has got a long way to travel before it becomes perfect.”

    Address at Aberdeen, South Dakota
    April 6, 1903

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – March 11, 2025

  • “The true doctrine to this nation, as to the individuals composing this nation, is not the life of ease, but the life of effort.”

    Speech in Provincetown, Massachusetts
    August 20, 1907

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – March 4, 2025

  • “For my fellow countrymen, you can never afford to forget at one moment that in the long run anything that is of benefit to one part of our republic is of necessity a benefit to all the Republic. . .”

    Speech in Denver, Colorado
    May, 1903

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – February 25, 2025

  • “As a people we are indeed beyond measure fortunate in the characters of the two greatest of our public men, Washington and Lincoln.”

    Address in Hodgenville, Kentucky
    February 12, 1909

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – February 18, 2025

  • “The problems that confront us in this age are, after all, in their essence the same as those that have always confronted free people striving to secure and to keep free government.”

    The Strenuous Life
    1899

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – February 11, 2025

  • “In life as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don’t foul and don’t shirk, but hit the line hard.”

    The Strenuous Life
    April 10, 1899

    Wisdom From Our 26th President – February 4, 2025