Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
- Topic: Conflict, Negotiation, Speech, Strength
- Location: Zion National Park
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Theodore Roosevelt
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
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.
We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall be given a square deal.
To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.
To educate in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism… The one absolutely certain way of brining this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.
More Quotes from Zion National Park
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble and a fuss; and that they can have if we explain; and they cannot have if we don’t.
No problem is so deep that it cannot be overcome, given the will of all parties, through discussion and negotiation rather than force and violence.
He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.
It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
Madness does not govern a country; discussion does.
Religion is a great force—the only real motive force in the world; but what you fellows don't understand is that you must get a man through his own religion and not through yours.
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance between chaos and community.
We don't point a pistol at our own forehead. That is not the way to conduct negotiations.
The better you are at communicating negotiating, and handling your fear of rejection, the easier life is.
It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.
We know how to speak many falsehoods which resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.
Listen with ears of tolerance, see through the eyes of compassion, speak with language of love.
Everything you say should be true but not everything true should be said.
Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.
It cannot be your duty to do anything that is beyond your reach or your strength at the moment. It cannot be your duty to do anything that sacrifices your own integrity or your own spiritual development.
Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Old age is no place for sissies.
The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.
