"If there is one tendency of the..." - Quote by Theodore Roosevelt
If there is one tendency of the day which more than any other is unhealthy and undesirable, it is the tendency to deify mere "smartness," unaccompanied by a sense of moral accountability. We shall never make our republic what it should be until as a people we thoroughly understand and put in practice the doctrine that success is abhorrent if attained by the sacrifice of the fundamental principles of morality.
More by Theodore Roosevelt
“The dreams of golden glory in the future will not come true unless, high of heart and strong of hand, by our own mighty deeds we make them come true.”
“The dull, purblind folly of the very rich men, their greed and arrogance, and the corruption in business and politics, have tended to produce a very unhealthy condition.”
“To have acted otherwise ... would have been the betrayal of the interests of the United States.”
More on Morality
“I think one should do what seems right. And if what seems right involves danger...well, one must risk the danger.”
“Man's duty is to improve himself; to cultivate his mind; and, when he finds himself going astray, to bring the moral law to bear upon himself.”
“Between the acting of a dreadful thingAnd the first motion, all the interim isLike a phantasma or a hideous dream.”
More on Ethics
“Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it - a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.”
“Ought we not to ask the media to agree among themselves a voluntary code of conduct, under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists' morale or their cause while the hijack lasted.”
“The test to which all methods of treatment are finally brought is whether they are lucrative to doctors or not.”