But it is a shameful thing for a nation, if these memories stir it only to empty boastings, to a pride that does not shrink from present abasement, to that self-satisfaction which accepts the high resolve and unbending effort of the father as an excuse for effortless ease or wrongly directed effort in the son.
Roosevelt critiques empty pride that does not lead to meaningful action or effort.
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More from Teddy Roosevelt
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.
I want every labor man, every labor leader, every organized union man, to take the lead in denouncing crime or violence.
I care for the great deeds of the past chiefly as spurs to drive us onward in the present.
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