Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

Hypocrisy is not a way of getting back to the moral high ground. Pretending you're moral, saying your moral is not the same as acting morally.

The most virtuous women have something within them, something that is never chaste.

Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.

The weakest man is the one who is able to correct his moral defects, but doesn't take action.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage, and determination.

As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered.

It's not a pretty face, I grant you. But underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.

Even in decline, a virtuous man increases the beauty of his behavior. A burning stick, though turned to the ground, has its flame drawn upwards.

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

An ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.

The highest qualities of character... must be earned.

Virtue is reason which has become energy.

But we can hold our spirits and our bodies so pure and high, we may cherish such thoughts and such ideals, and dream such dreams of lofty purpose, that we can determine and know what manner of men we will be, whenever and wherever the hour strikes and calls to noble action.

I believe that ideal character in its perfection is potentially in every man who is born into the world.

We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.

My aim is just to remain as humble and as godly as I can be.

My favourite virtue is not having any.

I am someone without an ego.

Humility and self-restraint is the True Objective of Kenpo

Heights of the spirit can only be climbed by passing through the portals of humility.

Innocence alone dares commit certain acts of audacity. Virtue, when tutored, is as calculating as vice.