Last weekend marked the centennial anniversary of the death of Theodore Roosevelt.
There are many areas of policy and politics where those of us in the liberty movement would differ with America’s 26th president. But many of us share his commitment to virtue and character, and its importance for both individual flourishing and for public life.
In honor of this anniversary, here are six quotes by Roosevelt on those character and virtue:
1. On virtue and success in life:
“There are many qualities which we need in order to gain success, but the three above all—for the lack of which no brilliancy and no genius can atone—are Courage, Honesty and Common Sense.”
“Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character.”
“A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage. . .For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”
“Sometimes in life, both at school and afterwards, fortune will go against anyone, but if he just keeps pegging away and don’t lose his courage things always take a turn for the better in the end.”
“[W]e must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.”
6. On self-mastery: “Unless a man is master of his soul, all other kinds of mastery amount to little.”
This Acton Institute article was republished with permission.
Joe Carter
Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).