YUKS
Quotes page 11
Theodore
Roosevelt
Said:
A man who has never gone to school may steal from a
freight car; but if he has
a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
A man who is
good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to
be given a square deal afterwards.
A man who is
good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to
be given a square deal afterwards.
A thorough
knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.
A typical vice
of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.
A vote is like
a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
Absence and
death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering.
Appraisals are
where you get together with your team leader and agree what an outstanding
member of the team you are, how much your contribution has been valued, what
massive potential you have and, in recognition of all this, would you mind
having your salary halved.
Behind the
ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance
and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
Believe you can
and you're halfway there.
Big jobs
usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.
Character, in
the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations
alike.
Courtesy is as
much a mark of a gentleman as courage.
Do what you
can, with what you have, where you are.
Don't hit at
all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Don't hit at
all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit softly.
Every immigrant
who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave
the country.
Every reform
movement has a lunatic fringe.
Far and away
the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth
doing.
Far and away
the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Far better is
it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by
failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer
much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
For unflagging
interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well,
certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by
comparison.
Freedom from
effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the
past.
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.
Get action.
Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.
Great thoughts
speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
I am a part of
everything that I have read.
I am only an
average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.
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!
I don't pity
any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who
does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as
being.
I think there
is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
I took the
Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does
also.
I wish to
preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous
life.
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.
If you could
kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't
sit for a month.
In a moment of
decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can
do is nothing.
In any moment
of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing
is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
It behooves
every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary
importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does
things.
It is difficult
to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to
ruin it by bad laws.
It is essential
that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization.
Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.
It is hard to
fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
It is hard to
fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get
nothing save by effort.
It is only
through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we
move on to better things.
Keep your eyes
on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
Leave it as it
is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Never
throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth
remembering.
Nine-tenths of
wisdom consists in being wise in time.
Nine-tenths of
wisdom is being wise in time.
No great
intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.
No man is above
the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask
him to obey it.
No man is above
the law, and no man is below it.
No man is
justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.
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.
No people is
wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and
stealing a purse.
Nobody cares
how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Obedience of
the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.
Old age is like
everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young.
Order without
liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
People ask the
difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
People ask the
difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the
boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
Probably the
greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do
ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own
natures.
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.
Some men can
live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.
Speak softly
and carry a big stick; you will go far.
Speak softly
and carry a big stick.
The American
people abhor a vacuum.
The best
executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants
done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do
it.
The best
executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants
them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they
do it.
The boy who is
going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a
thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.
The first
requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able
and willing to pull his own weight.
The government
is us; we are the government, you and I.
The human body
has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get
their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the
pants.
The man who
loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who
loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.
The most
important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get
along with people.
The most
practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.
The most
successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and
in the loudest voice.
The most
successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in
the loudest voice.
The one thing I
want to leave my children is an honorable name.
The only man
who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.
The only man
who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
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.
The pacifist is
as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal
wrongdoer.
The reactionary
is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead.
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.
The
unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but
never hit softly.
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.
There has never
yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth
remembering.
To announce
that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to
the American public.
To educate a
man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Wars are, of
course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of
peace.
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.
When they call
the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer
"Present" or "Not guilty."
When you are
asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find
out how to do it.