Theodore Roosevelt actually said...

The great deeds of those that have gone before us must ever serve not as a reason for inaction on our part, but as the keenest of spurs to drive us forward on the path of national greatness and justice.

Context

Remarks at a Banquet Given By Attorney General Philander Knox in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

07/03/1902

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu...

More Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

We shall make our government a success if we shall measure each man by the standard of his worth as a man.
8/31/1902
It is not enough, gentlemen, to mean well either in battle or in civil life; you not only had to mean well, you had to do well, and it is th...
8/29/1902
It is a great thing to have had forefathers who did their work well in the world.
8/29/1902
You ought not to want to see it anyway; but only now and then comes the chance to do the good work in war.
8/29/1902

View All Theodore Roosevelt Quotes