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. Theodore Roosevelt More Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt More Quotes From Theodore Roosevelt Our country, we have faith to believe, is only at the beginning of its growth. Unless the forests of the United States can be made ready to meet the vast demands which this growth will inevitably bring, commercial disaster, that means disaster to the whole country, is inevitable. Theodore Roosevelt mean believe country Practical efficiency is common, and lofty idealism not uncommon; it is the combination which is necessary, and the combination is rare Theodore Roosevelt efficiency combination common There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. Theodore Roosevelt presidential country rooms In every community there are little knots of fantastic extremists who loudly proclaim that they are striving for righteousness, and who, in reality, do their feeble best for unrighteousness. Just as the upright politician should hold in peculiar scorn the man who makes the name of politician a reproach and a shame, so the genuine reformer should realize that the cause he champions is especially jeopardized by the mock reformer who does what he can to make reform a laughingstock among decent men. Theodore Roosevelt names men reality There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life, and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction. Theodore Roosevelt sorrow real suffering Thank God for the iron in the blood of our fathers Theodore Roosevelt iron father blood Those who advocate total lack of regulation, those who advocate lawlessness in the business world, themselves give the strongest impulse to what I believe would be the deadening movement toward unadulterated state socialism. Theodore Roosevelt would-be giving believe No nation deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft, effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality. Theodore Roosevelt heartless luxury loss A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless. Theodore Roosevelt future country children It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws. Theodore Roosevelt ruins politics law While President, I have been President - emphatically. Theodore Roosevelt has-beens president All the resources we need are in the mind. Theodore Roosevelt resources mind needs Work hard at work worth doing. Theodore Roosevelt day-jobs labor-day work Envy is as evil a thing as arrogance. Theodore Roosevelt envy arrogance evil Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering. Theodore Roosevelt world-suffering distance missing-you Abraham Lincoln - the spirit incarnate of those who won victory in the Civil War - was the true representative of this people, not only for his own generation, but for all time, because he was a man among men. Theodore Roosevelt men war people I have often thought that unselfishness combined in one word more of the teachings of the Bible than any other in the language. Theodore Roosevelt one-word language teaching Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction. Theodore Roosevelt our-words progress long There is need of a sound body, and even more need of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character-the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man's force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor. Theodore Roosevelt character men mean To exist as a nation, to prosper as a state, and to live as a people, we must have trees. Theodore Roosevelt garden tree people
