T.R.

Theodore Roosevelt is probably my favorite president of all time. I don't think he was the best, that would probably be either Washington or Lincoln. However, he is right up there. He led the nation in a time of relative peace, even though he served honorably in the Army. He was a young Governor, Vice President, and President. Though conservative, he cared about the environment. (in a true sense, unlike hypocrites like Al Gore) He believed in the free-market, yet didn't allow big business to run amok. While I believe that Winston Churchill was more important in the grand scheme of the 20th century, America needs a President much like T.R. today. Here are a few quotes from T.R. that I enjoy.

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.
Theodore Roosevelt

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.
Theodore Roosevelt

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
Theodore Roosevelt

Believe you can and you're halfway there.
Theodore Roosevelt

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
Theodore Roosevelt

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.
Theodore Roosevelt

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
Theodore Roosevelt

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.
Theodore Roosevelt

The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.
Theodore Roosevelt

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
Theodore Roosevelt

There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.
Theodore Roosevelt

From the mouth of the man who saved Western Civilisation

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
Sir Winston Churchill

A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.
Sir Winston Churchill

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
Sir Winston Churchill

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
Sir Winston Churchill

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.
Sir Winston Churchill

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
Sir Winston Churchill

The price of greatness is responsibility.
Sir Winston Churchill

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
Sir Winston Churchill

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, This was their finest hour.
Sir Winston Churchill