“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

“It is character that counts in a nation as in a man.”

Galena, Illinois
April 27, 1900

“What we really need in this country is to treat the tariff as a business proposition from the standpoint of the interests of the country as a whole, and not from the standpoint of the temporary needs of any political party.”

Speech in Logansport, Indiana
September 23, 1902