“If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk big; we must act big.”

Editorial in the Metropolitan
September 1917

“No republic can last if corruption is allowed to eat into public life.”

Speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, IL
September 8, 1910

“We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.”

Speech in the Dakota Territory,
July 4, 1886

“Good legislation does not secure good government, which can come only through a good administration.”

Speech in New York,
May 25, 1900

“The first duty of the government is relentlessly to put a stop to the violence and then to deal firmly and wisely with all the conditions that led up to the violence.”

Letter to Victor A. Olander,
Illinois State Federation of Labor,
July 17, 1917

“The first requisite for the welfare of any community is justice.”

Outlook
February 25, 1911

“The business of a statesman is to try constantly to keep international relations better, to do away with causes of friction, and secure as nearly as ideal justice as actual conditions will permit.”

Letter to Baron Kentaro Kaneko,
May 23, 1907

“It is a good thing for all Americans, and it is an especially good thing for young Americans, to remember the men who have given their lives in war and peace to the service of their fellow countrymen.”

Preface to Hero Tales from American History,
1895

“We cannot sit huddled within our own borders and avow ourselves merely an assemblage of well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond. Such a policy would defeat even its own end.”

Speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago,
April 10, 1899

“I would rather go out of politics feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I had acted as I ought not to.”

Speech in the New York Assembly
March 2, 1883

“The soul of France, at this moment, seems purified of all dross; it burns like the clear flame of fire on a sacred tripod.”

Fear God and Take Your Own Part
1916

“It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.”

Atlantic Monthly
August, 1894