Teddy Roosevelt

The man who would preach to either wage-worker or capitalist that the other was his foe is a bad citizen and faithless American.

Our aim should be to strive to keep the reign of justice alive in this country so that we shall above all things avoid the chance of ever dividing on the lines that separate one class from another, one occupation from another.

Each type of organization should be welcomed when it does good, and fearlessly opposed when it does evil.

We must face the work we have to do as our fathers faced their work, if we wish to be successful.

The problems are new, but the spirit in which we must approach their solution is old.

If there again comes a war I know I can count on the men of the National Guard, like my escort, because the memory of what your fathers did will make you ashamed not to rise level to the demands of the new time as they rose level to the…

We, of this united country, have a right to challenge, as part of the heritage of honor and glory of each American, the renown bought by all Americans who fought in the Civil War, whether they wore the blue or whether they wore the gray.

So, though I congratulate you upon what you have done in the way of material growth, I congratulate you even more upon the great historic memories of your State.

It is the indispensable foundation; but if we do not raise upon it the superstructure of a higher citizenship then we fail in bringing this country to the level to which it shall and will be brought.

I realize to the full, as every good citizen should realize, that there must be a foundation of material prosperity upon which to build the welfare of State or Nation; but I realize also, as every good citizen should, that material…

I entered your borders a pretty good American, and I leave them a better American.

Neither the individual nor the community is worth anything if it seeks after that which is easy.

The children who will rise up to call their parents blessed are those whom the parents have trained to meet difficulties, not to shirk them; to overcome obstacles, not to get out of the way for them.

The greatness of the country in the time immediately to come will depend upon the way in which the young generation of to-day is trained to citizenship in the future.

It is right that we should remember that the mighty deeds of our forefathers are not to serve to us as excuses for inaction on our part, but as spurs to drive us forward to doing our duty in our turn.

We have the right to expect from college men not merely disinterested service, but intelligent service.

You can not repay that to the college save in one way: by the quality of your citizenship as displayed in the actual affairs of life you can make it an honor to the college to have sent you forth into the great world.

You have received from her, during your years of attendance in her halls, certain privileges in the way of scholarship, in the way of companionship, which makes it incumbent upon you to repay what you have been given.

Each one of you, if he is worth his salt, wishes, when he graduates, to pay some portion of the debt due to his alma mater.

You are not entitled to any special privilege, but you are entitled to be held to a peculiar accountability; you have earned the right to be held peculiarly responsible for what you do.

We have a right to expect a special quality of leadership from the men to whom much has been given in the way of a collegiate education.

Play when you play, but work when you work; and remember that your having gone through college does not so much confer a special privilege as it imposes a special obligation on you.

You stand for academic freedom, for the right of private judgment, for the duty, more incumbent upon the scholar than upon any other man, to tell the truth as he sees it, to claim for himself and give to others the largest liberty in…

You stand for all those things for which the scholar must stand if he is to render real and lasting service to the state.

It is an even better thing to try to do what we can to show our pleasure in and approval of productive literary work in the present.