Teddy Roosevelt

As far as I am aware, there has never before been made in this country, or indeed, in any country, such a comprehensive systematic effort to put the country’s housekeeping in order.

You have literally an unparalleled opportunity for useful work.

You are not engaged in constructing a parlor theory of how the work should be done; you are engaged in recommendations to better the business which you are yourselves to carry through and see made better when those recommendations have…

I want you, so far as is possible, to recommend something that I can do, something that the heads of the departments can do, so that we can ourselves put a stop to much at least of the evil that exists, remedy much at least of the…

There is nothing easier, as all of you know, than to draw up an elaborate minute to show how well things would go on if some one else did something different.

I want to say right here, gentlemen, that I shall value the reports that I receive largely in proportion as they do not call for legislation.

Remember that the dearest kind of public servant is a servant who is paid so cheaply that he must render cheap service.

But we can not keep the service as high as it should be kept unless we have adequate salaries.

You can not expect to get permanently good service when that service is unattractive and ill-paid.

I have not, I am sorry to say, been able to persuade people thus to look upon even such a question as the Santo Domingo Treaty, which is a purely non-partisan measure; for if it was treated as it should be, purely on its merits, there…

There are many cases where an investigation securing complete publicity about abuses and giving Congress the material on which to proceed in the enactment of laws, is more useful than a criminal prosecution can possibly be.

This one of the most valuable lessons of the late war in the East is worthy of serious consideration by our country, with its extensive coast line, its many important harbors, and its many wealthy manufacturing coast cities.

In the insular possessions, the great naval bases at Guantanamo, Subig Bay, and Pearl Harbor, the coaling stations at Guam and San Juan, require protection, and, in addition, defences are recommended for Manila Bay and Honolulu, because of…

The insular possessions can not be held unless the principal ports, naval bases, and coaling stations are fortified before the outbreak of war.

Our coast defences as they existed in 1860 were not surpassed in efficiency by those of any country, but within a few years the introduction of rifled cannon and armor in the navies of the world, against which the smoothbore guns were…

The white man needs just as much as the colored man to learn that for the average man the education that fits him to do work in life is industrial.

The only way in which any section of our citizens, of no matter what color, can be permanently benefited is by teaching them to pull their own weight, to do their own duty, their duty to themselves, their duty to their neighbors, their…

There are a great many very, very excellent charitable people in the country, but some of them tend to forget at times that the only charity that does permanent good is that kind of charity that is not a charity at all, that teaches some…

I want to say that while it is incumbent upon you to take your duties seriously and do them with all your heart, if you do even that you do more good to the Nation than any equal body of citizens to be found in our country.

It is absolutely not of the slightest consequence what their alignment is, but is of vital consequence that they shall know how to take cover, how to shoot, and how to make themselves at home under any circumstances.

Every officer of the National Guard should train his men the whole time as if he were training them with a view to possible action, so that the men under him will be trained by him to have those habits of body and mind which will render…

I want to see the young fellow who has been through the National Guard receive a training which will make him able to do his work in time of war if the need comes.

I want to see the average National Guardsman know how to shoot well.

If he is trained to march that way he will not throw away his equipment the first time he goes to war; otherwise he will do it.

I want to have it understood, gentlemen, that I do not care anything like as much for how your regiments march and perform parade-ground and armory maneuvres as I care for how they are instructed in the work that would make them valuable…