Authors / Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt quotes

1858–1919 · 26th President of the United States

Roosevelt was a naturalist, soldier, rancher and author of some thirty-five books — and a magnet for invented quotes.

2 real · 1 not theirs

2 quotes traced to Theodore Roosevelt's own work or a reliable witness.

Sourced

It is not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

Source: "Citizenship in a Republic", Paris (23 April 1910)

Sourced

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

He called it a West African proverb.

Source: Letter to Henry L. Sprague (26 January 1900)

1 famous lines credited to Theodore Roosevelt that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.

Not theirs

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Actually: No evidence Roosevelt said or wrote it; the attribution appears only in recent decades.