“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

“Societies that cultivate patriotism in the present by keeping alive the memory of what we owe to the patriotism of the past, fill an indispensable function in this Republic.”

Speech in Washington, D.C.
May 2, 1902

“While I am President I wish the labor man to feel that he has the same right of access to me that the capitalist has; that the doors swing open as easily to the wage-worker as to the head of a big corporation—and no easier.“

Letter to a Critic
November 26, 1903

“Our prime need as a nation is that every American should understand and work with his fellow-citizens, getting into touch with them, so that by actual contact he may learn that fundamentally he and they have the same interests, needs, and aspirations.“

Chicago Labor Day Picnic
1900

“I believe in realizable ideals and in realizing them, in preaching what can be practiced and then in practicing it.”

An Autobiography
1913

“The first requisite of statesmanship is honesty. ”

Letter to Mrs. Nicholson
July 18, 1916