Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was known as a man of action and not mere words. He extolled the virtues of the "strenuous life", not only in writing, but in practice. -
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
"Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster."
"Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind."
"I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being."
"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life."
"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."
"Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering."
"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."
