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

– An Autobiography, 1913

“If a labor union does wrong, we oppose it as firmly as we oppose a corporation which does wrong; and we stand equally stoutly for the rights of the man of wealth and for the rights of the wage worker.”

– Special Message to Congress, January 31, 1908

“Under the American system, it is impossible for a man to accomplish anything by himself; he must associate himself with others,
and they must throw their weight together.”

– American Ideals, and Other Essays, Social and Political, 1897

“We, the people, rule ourselves, and what we really want from our
representatives is that they shall manage the government
for us along the lines we lay down, and shall do
this with efficiency and good faith.”

– St. Louis, MO, March 28, 1912

“Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of
a man it should be paid as highly.”

– An Autobiography 1913

“Athletics are good; study is even better; and best of all is the development of the type of character for the lack of which, in an individual as in a nation, no amount of brilliance of mind or of strength of body will atone.”

– Address at Harvard University, February 23, 1907

“At this moment, we are passing through a period of great unrest – social, political and industrial unrest. It is of the utmost importance for our future that this should prove to be not the unrest of mere rebelliousness against life, of mere dissatisfaction with the inevitable inequality of conditions, but the unrest of a resolute and eager ambition to secure the betterment of the individual and the nation.”

– Address at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the
Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC, April 14, 1906

“Order without liberty and liberty without order are
equally destructive.”

– The Great Adventure, 1918

“A great free people owes it to itself and to all mankind not to sink into helplessness before the powers of evil.”

– Fourth Annual Message to Congress, 1904

“Where such results flow from battles as flowed from Bannockburn and Yorktown, centuries must pass before the wound not only scars over but becomes completely forgotten, and the memory becomes a bond of union and not a cause of division. It is our business to shorten the time as much as possible.”

– Letter to Sir George Otto Trevelyan, January 1, 1908

“Something can be done by good laws; more can be done by the honest administration of the laws; but most of all can be done by frowning resolutely upon the preachers of vague discontent…”

– Review of Reviews, January 1897

“If there is any one quality that is not admirable, whether in a
nation or in an individual, it is hysterics, either in
religion or in anything else.”

– Boston, MA, August 25, 1902