“The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”

Letter to the Proceedings of the Congress of Constructive Patriotism
January 10, 1917

“There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man’s heart and soul, the man’s worth and actions, determine his standing.”

Letter to Baron d’Estournelles De Constant
Oyster Bay, New York, September 1, 1903

“I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.”

Oyster Bay, New York
July 7, 1915

“To sit home, read one’s favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men’s doing.”

The Outlook
December 21, 1895

“Men can never escape being governed. Either they must govern themselves or they must submit to being governed by others.”

Jamestown, Virginia
April 26, 1907

“The corner-stone of the Republic lies in our treating each man on his worth as a man, paying no heed to his creed, his birthplace, or his occupation … asking only whether he acts decently and honorably in the various relations of his life, whether he behaves well to his family, to his neighbors, to the state.”

Jamestown, Virginia
April 26, 1907

“It either is or ought to be evident to every one that business has to prosper before anybody can get any benefit from it.”

Ohio State Constitutional Convention, Columbus, OH
February 21, 1912

“The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight.”

New York City,
November 11, 1902

“When the people will not or cannot work together; when they permit groups of extremists to decline to accept anything that does not coincide with their own extreme views, or when they let power slip from their hands through sheer supine indifference; then they have themselves chiefly to blame if the power is grasped by stronger hands.”

Oliver Cromwell
1900