50 Powerful Teddy Roosevelt Quotes to Ignite Courage

November 12, 2025

Introduction

Quotes have a unique power: a few well-chosen words can shift your mood, focus your will, and spark action. Teddy Roosevelt's voice—bold, clear, and uncompromising—offers timeless fuel for courage, leadership, and perseverance. Use these quotes when you need a push to begin, a reminder to persist, guidance in leadership, or a compass for living with purpose.

Motivational quotes

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
"When you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."
"Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground."
"With self-discipline most anything is possible."
"The best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
"When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all."
"I am only an average man, but I work harder at it than the average man."
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."

Courage & leadership quotes

"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives."
"The thing that counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight—it's the size of the fight in the dog."
"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
"Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster."
"No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency."
"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."
"When you see a good move, look for a better one."
"A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

Life wisdom quotes

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty."
"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."
"A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education."
"Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike."
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
"Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right."
"Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage."
"The welfare of each of us is fundamentally dependent upon the welfare of all of us."

Success & work quotes

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people."
"The best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
"When you are trying to do something difficult you may well fail at first; but every failure is a stepping stone toward success."
"A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad."
"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." (variation emphasizing meaningful effort)
"If people talk about you, let them do so; occupy yourself with the work to be done."
"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything." (work demands risk)
"There can be no greater calling than to serve your country with zeal and honesty."

Persistence & effort quotes

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much..."
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better..."
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; ... who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."
"Nothing worth having comes easy—persistence is the price of reward."
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield—such is the measure of a purposeful life."
"The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself. Conservation must be national policy if we are to remain a people."
"A life of ease and luxury is a disease; it is degenerative and emasculating."
"Keep on the offensive; collapse and you are lost."

Character & civic duty quotes

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards."
"The conservation of our natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem, it will avail us little to solve all others."
"The most practical single central thing in the education of children is to inculcate in them habits of industry."
"There is no more practical education than that of the school of hard knocks."
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." (a wry call to personal responsibility)
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight."
"Obedience is not the highest compliment you can pay your country; action informed by conscience and duty is."

Conclusion

Teddy Roosevelt's words cut through excuses and invite bold, purposeful action. Keep these quotes where you can see them—on your desk, phone, or mirror—to reboot courage, clarify choices, and remind you that effort, character, and daring are the roots of meaningful success. Use them as prompts to act: read one each morning and let it steer your day.