“More and more we are learning that to love one’s country above all others is in no way incompatible with respecting and wishing well to all others.”

Buffalo, New York
May 20, 1901

“We must always weigh well our duties in such a case, and consider the rights of others as well as our own rights, in the interest of the world at large.“

Outlook
September 23, 1914

“The things of the body are good; the things of the intellect better; the best of all are the things of the soul; for, in the nation as in the individual, in the long run it is character that counts.”

Thanksgiving Proclamation
October 31, 1908

“…justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong.“

Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1905

“I feel that in a peculiar degree New York is not representative of the country.“

Letter to Anna Roosevelt Cowles
October 16, 1902

“Under no form of government is it so necessary thus to combine efficiency and morality, high principle and rough common sense, justice and the sturdiest physical and moral courage, as in a republic.”

Inaugural address as the Governor of New York
January 2, 1899

“A man must have in him a strong and earnest sense of duty and the desire to accomplish good for the commonwealth, without regard to the effect upon himself, to be useful in Congress.”

Harvard Graduates’ Magazine
October 1892

“Our country offers the most wonderful example of democratic government on a giant scale that the world has ever seen; and the peoples of the world are watching to see whether we succeed or fail.”

Saratoga, New York
September 27, 1910

“Under our form of government, no man can accomplish anything by himself. He must work in combination with others.”

Century Magazine
January 1885

“The war we wage must be waged against misconduct, against wrongdoing wherever it is found; and we must stand heartily for the rights of every decent man, whether he be a man of great wealth or a man who earns his livelihood as a wage-worker or a tiller of the soil.”

Eighth Annual Message to Congress
December 9, 1908

“Courtesy among individuals is a good thing, but international courtesy is quite as good a thing.”

Before the Periodical Publishers’ Association, Washington, D.C.
April 7, 1904