I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.
- Topic: Adversity, Character, Leadership
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Theodore Roosevelt
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.
The liar is no better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.
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.
To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.
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If you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain.
You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that setbacks and griefs which endure help us in our march forward.
There is no education like adversity.
No all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.
Old age is no place for sissies.
Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you. . . If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it.
Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
He whose honor depends on the opinion of the mob must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the mob is varied and inconsistent, and therefore if a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly.
The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against our faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by tellings against ourselves.
A fair character is a fair fortune.
Plans will get you into things, but you have got to work your way out.
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really man it.
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.
The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do.
Freedom of information is a fundamental human right...for a nation that is afraid to let its people to judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
False leaders rarely engage succession planning for fear of no longer being seen as the leader.
Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.
Howsoever you may repair it, a rift is a rift.
Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.
A fast way to demolish relationships, shatter credibility and disrespect yourself is by not following through when you say you are going to do something.
The greatest kindness one can render to any man is leading him to truth.
