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67 Famous Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

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67 Famous Theodore Roosevelt Quotes On Success

If you’re looking for the best Theodore Roosevelt quotes then look no further.

Theodore Roosevelt is remembered as one of the greatest American Presidents in history. His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore, alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.

Born to a wealthy Manhattan family in 1858, Teddy Roosevelt grew up both sickly and pampered, but overcame his debilitating asthma and physical health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle and serving the American people.

This resilience and drive would inspire his distant cousin and future president Franklin D. Roosevelt decades later.

Its almost hard to comprehend how much Teddy Roosevelt had achieved in his life. He served the New York City police commissioner, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War, assistant secretary of the Navy, the governor of New York, and then President William McKinley’s vice president. After McKinley was assassinated in 1901, he became the country’s youngest president at age 42.

As President, he led the US into a progressive era breaking up corporate monopolies, forming the conservation movement, and greatly increasing American influence around the world. He even won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for brokering the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

Theodore Roosevelt was a man who preached a strenuous life, that we should all work hard and devote ourselves to a worthwhile cause. He was a man of incredible wisdom and insight.

Below I’ve compiled the best Theodore Roosevelt quotes to inspire you to work hard on your dreams.

67 Theodore Roosevelt Quotes On Courage, Leadership & Success

1. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

2. “Dreams are a dime a dozen. it’s their execution that counts.” – Theodore Roosevelt

3. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” – Theodore Roosevelt

4. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

5. “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

6. “With self discipline most anything is possible.” – Theodore Roosevelt

7. “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.” – Theodore Roosevelt

8. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

9. “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” – Theodore Roosevelt

10. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – Theodore Roosevelt

11. “The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.” – Theodore Roosevelt

12. “Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.” – Theodore Roosevelt

13. “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” – Theodore Roosevelt

14. “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” – Theodore Roosevelt

15. “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” – Theodore Roosevelt

16. “I am a part of everything that I have read.” – Theodore Roosevelt

17. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

18. “Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.” – Theodore Roosevelt

19. “A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.” – Theodore Roosevelt

20. “When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.” – Theodore Roosevelt

21. “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt (This is one of my favourite Theodore Roosevelt quotes. Let me know yours in the comments below.)

22. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

23. “Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!” – Theodore Roosevelt

24. “Politeness is a sign of dignity, not subservience.” – Theodore Roosevelt

25. “The joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

26. “It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.” – Theodore Roosevelt

27. “Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt

28. “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. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.” – Theodore Roosevelt

29. “I am only an average man, but by George, I work harder at it than the average man.” – Theodore Roosevelt

30. “I put myself in the way of things happening, and they happened.” – Theodore Roosevelt

31. “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

32. “All the resources we need are in the mind.” – Theodore Roosevelt

33. “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.” – Theodore Roosevelt

34. “Nothing worth having comes easy.” – Theodore Roosevelt

35. “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.” – Theodore Roosevelt

36. “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” – Theodore Roosevelt

37. “It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching.” – Theodore Roosevelt

38. “Nine tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.” – Theodore Roosevelt

39. “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.” – Theodore Roosevelt

40. “There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to ‘mean’ horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid.” – Theodore Roosevelt

41. “Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.” – Theodore Roosevelt

42. “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.” – Theodore Roosevelt

43. “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

44. “It is never worth while to absolutely exhaust one’s self or to take big chances unless for an adequate object.” – Theodore Roosevelt

45. “Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

46. “Life means change; where there is no change, death comes.” – Theodore Roosevelt

47. “Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.” – Theodore Roosevelt

48. “There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live – I have no use for the sour-faced man – and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.” – Theodore Roosevelt

49. “Books are the ammunition of life.” – Theodore Roosevelt

50. “We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.” – Theodore Roosevelt

51. “Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.” – Theodore Roosevelt

52. “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.” – Theodore Roosevelt

53. “Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.” – Theodore Roosevelt

54. “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

55. “The hardest lessons to learn are those that are the most obvious.” – Theodore Roosevelt

56. “The person who succeeds is not the one who holds back, fearing failure, nor the one who never fails but rather the one who moves on in spite of failure.” – Theodore Roosevelt

57. “Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.” – Theodore Roosevelt

58. “I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.” – Theodore Roosevelt

59. “The reactionary is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead.” – Theodore Roosevelt

60. “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

61. “We cannot do great deeds unless we are willing to do the small things that make up the sum of greatness.” – Theodore Roosevelt

62. “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

63. “Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.” – Theodore Roosevelt

64. “Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference.” – Theodore Roosevelt

65. “It is always better to be an original than an imitation.” – Theodore Roosevelt

66. “The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. Do not be afraid to make mistakes providing you do not make the same one twice.” – Theodore Roosevelt

67. “The chief factor in any man’s success or failure must be his own character — that is, the sum of his common sense, his courage, his virile energy and capacity. Nothing can take the place of this individual factor.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Did you like these inspirational quotes?

I hope you enjoyed these Theodore Roosevelt quotes. As you can see he was big on taking full responsibility for our lives and making a valuable contribution to the world. Nothing worth having comes easy but if you’re working toward a purpose and love what you do then you’ll enjoy the process.

What are your favourite Theodore Roosevelt quotes? Let me know in the comments and please share this post to help and inspire others.

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