I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character! — Theodore Roosevelt

Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above is character. — Theodore Roosevelt

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is character that counts in a nation as in a man. — Theodore Roosevelt

Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution. — Theodore Roosevelt

I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends, but I rank dividends below human character. — Theodore Roosevelt

The chief factor in any man’s success or failure must be his own character. — Theodore Roosevelt

Laws are essential emanations from the self–poised character of God; they radiate from the sun to the circling edge of creation. Verily, the mighty Lawgiver hath subjected himself unto laws. — Theodore Roosevelt

There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. — Theodore Roosevelt

Death is always, under all circumstances, a tragedy, for if it is not then it means that life has become one. — Theodore Roosevelt

What a man does for himself, dies with him. What a man does for his community lives long after he’s gone. — Theodore Roosevelt

I do not believe there was ever a life more attractive than life on a cattle farm. — Theodore Roosevelt

Life brings sorrows and joys alike. It is what a man does with them–not what they do to him–that is the true test of his mettle. — Theodore Roosevelt

The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. — Theodore Roosevelt

The joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it. — Theodore Roosevelt

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life. — Theodore Roosevelt

Life is a great adventure…accept it in such a spirit. — Theodore Roosevelt

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering. — Theodore Roosevelt

The light has gone out of my life. — Theodore Roosevelt

Most of us tiptoe through life in order to make it safely to death. — Theodore Roosevelt

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. — Theodore Roosevelt

I have already lived and enjoyed as much life as any nine other men I have known. — Theodore Roosevelt

At sometime in our lives a devil dwells within us, causes heartbreaks, confusion and troubles, then dies. — Theodore Roosevelt

The world wants the kind of men who do not shrink from temporary defeats in life; but come again and wrestle triumph from defeat. — Theodore Roosevelt

To every man who faces life with real desire to do his part in everything, I appeal for a study of the Bible. — Theodore Roosevelt

No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well–being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause. — Theodore Roosevelt

The only tyrannies from which men, women and children are suffering in real life are the tyrannies of minorities. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home. — Theodore Roosevelt

The performance of duty, and not an indulgence in vapid ease and vapid pleasure, is all that makes life worth while. — Theodore Roosevelt

In life, as in football, the principle to follow is to hit the line hard. — Theodore Roosevelt

There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life. — Theodore Roosevelt

In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans. — Theodore Roosevelt

We can have no ’50–50′ allegiance in this country. either a man is an american and nothing else, or he is not an american at all. — Teddy Roosevelt

The American people abhor a vacuum. — Theodore Roosevelt

There can be no fifty–fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else — Theodore Roosevelt

I wish that all Americans would realize that American politics is world politics. — Theodore Roosevelt

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president… is morally treasonable to the American public. — Theodore Roosevelt

To announce there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand with the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. — Theodore Roosevelt

Americans learn only from catastrophe and not from experience. — Theodore Roosevelt

I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit. — Theodore Roosevelt

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues. — Theodore Roosevelt

The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame. — Theodore Roosevelt

Do nothing to mar its grandeur … keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see. — Theodore Roosevelt

All privileges based on wealth, and all emnity to honest men merely because they are wealthy, are un–American. — Theodore Roosevelt

The mass of the American people are most emphatically not in the deplorable condition of which you speak. — Theodore Roosevelt

We will send ships and Marines as soon as possible for the protection of American life and property. — Theodore Roosevelt

Let men express the intense admiration, which I share with all other Americans, of the record made by the Marines. — Theodore Roosevelt

I have had a great time as president. — Theodore Roosevelt

We should not forget that it will be just as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time as it is to us to be prosperous in our time. — Theodore Roosevelt

Every Man owes some of his time to the upbuilding of the profession to which he belongs. — Theodore Roosevelt

Nine–tenths of wisdom is being wise in time. — Theodore Roosevelt

It pays no matter what comes after it, to try and do things, to accomplish things in this life and not merely to have a soft and pleasant time. — Theodore Roosevelt

The name Roosevelt has this legendary force in our country at this time. — Theodore Roosevelt

Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. — Theodore Roosevelt

If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don’t get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand at the heroic level. But no nation has the root of greatness in it unless in time of need it can rise to the heroic mood. — Theodore Roosevelt

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle–aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits. — Theodore Roosevelt

Give a man a soccer ball, he plays for a moment. Teach a man to play soccer, he plays for a life time. — Theodore Roosevelt

If I have to choose between peace and righteousness, I’ll choose righteousness. — Theodore Roosevelt

We do not admire a man of timid peace. — Theodore Roosevelt

A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace. — Theodore Roosevelt

No triumph of peace is quite so great as the supreme triumphs of war. — Theodore Roosevelt

If given the choice between Righteousness and Peace, I choose Righteousness. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is only the warlike power of a civilized people that can give peace to the world. — Theodore Roosevelt

We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. — Theodore Roosevelt

The sons of all of us will pay in the future if we of the present do not do justice in the present. — Theodore Roosevelt

Everyone loves justice in the affairs of another. — Theodore Roosevelt

Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood–the virtues that made America. — Theodore Roosevelt

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong. — Theodore Roosevelt

We sincerely and earnestly believe in peace; but if peace and justice conflict, we scorn the man who would not stand for justice though the whole world came in arms against him. — Theodore Roosevelt

I entirely appreciate loyalty to one’s friends, but loyalty to the cause of justice and honor stands above it. — Theodore Roosevelt

The settler and pioneer have at bottom had justice on their side; this great continent could not have been kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages. — Theodore Roosevelt

We must diligently strive to make our young men decent, God–fearing, law–abiding, honor–loving, justice–doing and also fearless and strong. — Theodore Roosevelt

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it. — Theodore Roosevelt

The nation should be ruled by the Ten Commandments. — Theodore Roosevelt

Each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune. — Theodore Roosevelt

What counts in a man or in a nation is not what the man or the nation can do, but what he or it actually does. — Theodore Roosevelt

Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of the nation. — Theodore Roosevelt

The one absolute certain way to bring this nation to ruin … would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. — Theodore Roosevelt

The one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight… It should be the growing nation with a future which takes the long look ahead. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is, of course, the merest truism to say a party is of use only so far as it serves the nation. — Theodore Roosevelt

All constitutions, those of the States no less than that of the nation, are designed, and must be interpreted and administered so as to fit human rights. — Theodore Roosevelt

A nation that still needs to distinguish between stealing an election, and stealing a new pair of shoes, is not completely civilized yet. — Theodore Roosevelt

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a Democrat like myself must admit this. — Theodore Roosevelt

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big. — Theodore Roosevelt

War is not merely justifiable, but imperative upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, where peace can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of national welfare. — Theodore Roosevelt

One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called ‘weasel words. — Theodore Roosevelt

The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value. — Theodore Roosevelt

The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens. — Theodore Roosevelt

To exist as a nation, to prosper as a state, and to live as a people, we must have trees. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer. — Theodore Roosevelt

It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well–being in and for itself. — Theodore Roosevelt

While President, I have been President–emphatically. — Theodore Roosevelt

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president. — Theodore Roosevelt

No President has ever enjoyed himself as much as I? — Theodore Roosevelt

No other President ever enjoyed the Presidency as I did. — Theodore Roosevelt

I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don’t think any ex–President ever enjoyed himself more. — Theodore Roosevelt

Oh, if only I could be President and Congress, too, just for ten minutes. — Theodore Roosevelt

I have always said I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota. — Theodore Roosevelt