“A nation’s greatness lies in its possibility of achievement in the present, and nothing helps it more than the consciousness of achievement in the past.“

American Ideals
1897

“A strong and wise people will study its own failures no less than its triumphs, for there is wisdom to be learned from the study of both, of the mistake as well as of the success.”

Sixth Annual Address to Congress
December 6, 1906

“Your history, rightly studied, will teach us the time worn truth that in war as in peace we need chiefly the everyday commonplace virtues, and above all an unflagging sense of duty.”

Address in Burlington, Vermont
September 5, 1901

“Remember that the whole is the sum of the parts. It is a very good thing to come out to Fourth of July celebrations and hear what a great country we have.”

Address at Oyster Bay
July 4, 1906

“Don’t hit a man at all if you can avoid it, but if you have to hit him, knock him out.”

Speech in Cleveland, Ohio
November 2, 1916

“We need courage, we need decency, and we need the saving grace of common sense.”

Address in Shenandoah, Iowa
April 28, 1903

“We live in a rough world and good work in it can be done only by those who are not afraid to do their part in the dust and smoke of the arena.”

Address in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
April 3, 1903

“There can be no compromise on the great fundamental principles of morality.”

The Strenuous Life
1900

“There are plenty of tendencies for evil in what we see round about us. Thank heaven, there are an even greater number of tendencies for good.”

Palo Alto, California
May 12, 1903

“On behalf of the nation I pay our tribute of honor to the brave dead who died so nobly.”

Letter to William H. Moody
May 14, 1904

There are many qualities which we need in order to gain success, but the three above all—for the lack of which no brilliancy and no genius can atone—are Courage, Honesty and Common Sense.

“The Key to Success in Life”
1916

“The mother is the real Atlas, who bears aloft in her strong and tender arms the destiny of the world.”

Outlook
August 27, 1910