“Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character.”

Outlook Magazine, March 31, 1900

“Ease and rest and pleasure are good things, but only if they come as the reward of work well done.”

At Pilgrim Memorial Monument, Mass., August 20, 1907

“We need absolute honesty in public life; and we shall not get it until we remember that truth-telling must go hand in hand with it.”

Outlook, May 12, 1900

“Whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children’s children will get the benefit of it.”

At Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 6, 1903

 “A young man who has broken a running or jumping record, who has stroked a winning club crew or played on his college nine or eleven, has a distinct claim on our respect.”

North American Review, August 1890

“The life of the State rests and must ever rest upon the life of the family and the neighborhood.”

The Outlook, April 10, 1909

“We must all realize that conduct is of infinitely greater importance than dogma.”

 Through the Brazilian Wilderness, 1914

“If as a nation we are split into warring camps, if we teach our citizens not to look upon one another as brothers but as enemies divided by the hatred of creed for creed or of those of one race against those of another race, surely we shall fail and our great democratic experiment on this continent will go down in crushing overthrow.”

Speech in New York City
October 12, 1915

“A party fit to govern must have convictions.”

Letter accepting the Republican nomination for President
September 12, 1904

“Obedience to the law is demanded as a right, not asked as a favor.”

Third Annual Address to Congress
December 7, 1903

“We are all of us Americans and nothing else.”

New York Times
September 10, 1917

“There can be no greater misfortune for a free nation than to find itself under incapable leadership when confronted by a great crisis.”

Speech at Cooper Union, New York City
November 3, 1916