“Criminals always attack the helpless if possible. In exactly similar fashion aggressive and militarist nations attack weak nations where it is possible. Weakness always invites attack. Preparedness usually, but not always, averts it.”

Metropolitan, February 1916

“I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends; but I rank dividends below human character.”

Speech in Osawatomie, Kansas
August 31, 1910

“Be truthful; a lie implies fear, vanity, or malevolence.”

Speech at The Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts, May 24, 1904

“No man is fit to hold the position of President of the United States at all unless as President he feels that he represents no party but the people as a whole.”

Speech in Dallas, TX, April 5, 1905

“I ask in our civic life that we pay heed only to the man’s quality of citizenship, to repudiate as the worst enemy that we can have whoever tries to get us to discriminate for or against any man because of his creed or his birthplace.”

“Politicians proverbially like a colorless candidate, and the very success of what I have done, the number of things I have accomplished, and the extent of my record, may prove to be against me.”

Letter to Henry White, April 4, 1904

“I regard the memories of Washington and Lincoln as priceless heritages for our people.”

Letter to Sir George Otto Trevelyan, June 19, 1908

“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

An Autobiography, 1913

“It is not the man who sits by his fireside reading his evening paper, and saying how bad our politics and politicians are, who will ever do anything to save us; it is the man who goes out into the rough hurly-burly of the caucus, the primary, and the political meeting, and there faces his fellows on equal terms.”

Forum, July 1894

“The impractical visionary is far less often the guide and precursor than he is the embittered foe of the real reformer.”

Speech in Paris, France, April 23, 1910

“The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.”

History as Literature, 1913

“The cost of doing government business should be regulated with the same rigid scrutiny as the cost of doing a private business.”

Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1904