I have just been shot.

It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.

I absolutely agree with you that this matter is not one to be decided with any reference to the personal preferences or interests of any man, but purely from the standpoint of the interests of the people as a whole.

Therefore I hope that so far as possible the people may be given the chance, through direct primaries, to express their preference as to who shall be the nominee of the Republican Presidential Convention.

I deeply appreciate your letter, and I realize to the full the heavy responsibility it puts upon me.

One of the chief principles for which I have stood, and for which I now stand, and which I have always endeavored and always shall endeavor to reduce to action, is the genuine rule of the people.

I will accept the nomination for President if it is tendered to me, and I will adhere to this decision until the convention has expressed its preference.

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.

Our country—this great Republic—means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy, the triumph of popular government, and, in the long run, of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show…

A broken promise is bad enough in private life. It is worse in the field of politics.

We must drive the special interests out of politics.

I speak of the men of the past partly that they may be honored by our praise of them, but more that they may serve as examples for the future.

Every special interest is entitled to justice—full, fair, and complete—and, now, mind you, if there were any attempt by mob-violence to plunder and work harm to the special interest, whatever it may be, that I most dislike, and the wealthy…

Practical equality of opportunity for all citizens, when we achieve it, will have two great results.

I care for the great deeds of the past chiefly as spurs to drive us onward in the present.

I stand for the square deal.

No man is worth his salt in public life who makes on the stump a pledge which he does not keep after election; and, if he makes such a pledge and does not keep it, hunt him out of public life.

The good citizen will demand liberty for himself, and as a matter of pride, he will see to it that others receive the liberty which he thus claims as his own.