While we should, so long as we can safely do so, give to each individual the largest possible liberty, a liberty which necessarily includes initiative and responsibility, yet we must not hesitate to interfere whenever it is clearly seen that harm comes from excessive individualism.
Editor's note · Context
From "The Strenuous Life," Roosevelt articulates the need to balance individual liberty, including initiative and responsibility, with state intervention when extreme individualism causes harm.
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The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary.
Character must show itself in the man's performance both of the duty he owes himself and of the duty he owes the State.
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.
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.





