Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

A man ain't got not right to be a public man, unless he meets the public views.

I just want to faithfully represent the public that voted for me and diligently work for all the people in Israel. If I can do that, I don't care what anyone says about me.

What is the purpose of public service? It's to solve problems for the people you represent and certainly in the United States Senate, thinking about your state and thinking about your country as well.

They may then be willing to cast principled votes based on an educated understanding of the public interest in the face of polls suggesting that the public itself may have quite a different understanding of where its interest lies.

In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.

Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good.

We have the obligation to defy public opinion in the public interest.

The modern democratic state is legitimated by the priority of the public over the private, where public goods trump private interests, and the commonweal takes precedence over individual fortunes.

When politicians try to govern by raising a wet finger to the wind or on the basis of public opinion polling, the public gets to think that all leaders are interchangeable.

A man may be voted a bore or shunned as a pest, and yet he must be accorded the rights to which he is entitled by virtue of being a representative of the people.

In a democracy, as a matter of course, every effort is made to seize upon and create publick opinion, which is, substantially, securing power.

The public will vote if they have something important to vote for or against.

The public has to have a head, and if the President takes the heads away, the public will have his.

The representative assembly (House of Representatives) ... should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them

You will find me standing up to my rack, as the people's faithful representative, and the public's most obedient, very humble servant.

The fact is the American people want men and women to stand up and represent them and to put their interests ahead of the party interests.

I'll listen to the people. I will not put my party ahead of what the people want.

It is long since I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.

The public must be put in its place...so that each of us can live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd.

Our task is to be responsible for our speech, acts and political standpoint. These must be in conformity with the people's ideas and interests

What counts is not so much the fact as what the public perceives to be the fact.

That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.

I do not desire to be Minister of England; but while I am Minister of England I will hold office by no servile tenure; I will hold office unshackled by any other obligation than that of consulting the public interests and providing for the public safety.

We politicians are no great shakes, but you voters are no day at the beach.

Public officials often learn a great deal from the concerns and objections of citizens. (I certainly did) …. those who have the privilege of serving the American public should listen closely to those whom they are privileged to serve.