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Everyone admires his amazingly dynamic style and willingness to confront the issues of the day by bringing everyone to the negotiating table, his settlement of the war between Japan and Russia (which led to Roosevelt's winning the Nobel peace prize), and his building of the Panama Canal (though liberals complain he was too rough with Colombia).
Everyone admires his amazingly dynamic style and willingness to confront the issues of the day by bringing everyone to the negotiating table, his settlement of the war between Japan and Russia (which led to Roosevelt's winning the Nobel peace prize), and his building of the Panama Canal (though liberals complain he was too rough with Colombia).
In a quote which illustrates his commitment to pro-actively confront issues, Roosevelt stated,
==Religion and character==
Like his Roosevelt ancestors, Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church (denomination). His mother was a Presbyterian, another Calvinist denomination like the Reformed. In Oyster Bay there was no Reformed church, and so from 1887 onward he went to Christ Church (Episcopal) with his wife Edith and the children, where he took part in the service, loudly singing the hymns. But in Albany Roosevelt attended a Dutch Reformed church, while Edith went to an Episcopal church. In [[Washington]] he attended nearby Grace Reformed Church, a German Reformed church, close to the Dutch, while Edith, as First Lady attended St. John's Church, Lafayette Square (Episcopal), the "church of the presidents," across from the White House.<ref>[http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/Religion.htm THE RELIGION of THEODORE ROOSEVELT]</ref> Relative little has been written on Roosevelt 's religion, although a book, ''ROOSEVELT'S RELIGION'' by Christian Reisner,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=-rVEAAAAIAAJ&dq=ROOSEVELT%27S+RELIGION+by+Christian+Reisner&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=NaRpPqwPWv&sig=v-mVzmOukGfPAKjq6jZgfo4q3aM&hl=en&ei=x8-CSpiCOsaltgfD_rjMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Extract and search]</ref> provides recollections from his friends and others on the subject.
:''"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger." (1894)''.<ref>''The Works of Theodore Roosevelt - National Edition'', H-BAR Enterprises</ref>
Roosevelt provided ''Nine Reasons Why a Man Should Go to Church'',<ref>http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/Church9reasons.htm</ref> such as
:''In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid down grade.''
:''He will listen to and take part in reading some beautiful passages from the Bible. And if he is not familiar with the Bible he has suffered a loss.''
:''He may not hear a good sermon at church. He will hear a sermon by a good man who, whith his wife, is engaged all of the week in making hard lives a little easier.''
:''I advocate a man's joining in church work for the sake of showing his faith by his works.''
Various other quotes<ref>''The Works of Theodore Roosevelt - National Edition'', H-BAR Enterprises</ref> help express Roosevelt's character and values.
:''Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.(1894)''
:''I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.''<ref>Oyster Bay, NY, July 7, 1915</ref>
:''Alone of human beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of equal honor with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone down to the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back the children in whose hands rests the future of the years.''<ref>The Great Adventure, 1918</ref>
:''The bulk of government is not legislation but administration." "Men can never escape being governed. Either they must govern themselves or they must submit to being governed by others.''<ref>Jamestown, VA, April 26, 1907</ref>
:''This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country.''<ref>Memphis, TN, October 25, 1905</ref>
:''No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character.''<ref>An Autobiography, 1913</ref>
:''There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility.''<ref>Abilene, KS, May 2, 1903</ref>
:''I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.''<ref>Des Moines, Iowa, November 4, 1910</ref>
:''A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.''<ref>An Autobiography, 1913</ref>
:''The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name." "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.''<ref>Chicago, IL, April 10, 1899</ref>
:''There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man's heart and soul, the man's worth and actions, determine his standing.''<ref>Letter, Oyster Bay, NY, September 1, 1903</ref>
:''There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother.''<ref>Pasadena, CA, May 8, 1903</ref>
:''The object of government is the welfare of the people." "Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.''"<ref>The New Nationalism" speech, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910</ref>
:''Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.''<ref>Letter to John Hay, American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, London, Written in Washington, DC, June 7, 1897</ref>
:''Now to you men, who, in your turn, have come together to spend and be spent in the endless crusade against wrong, to you who face the future resolute and confident, to you who strive in a spirit of brotherhood for the betterment of our Nation, to you who gird yourselves for this great new fight in the never-ending warfare for the good of humankind, I say in closing what in that speech I said in closing: We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord''<ref>A Confession of Faith, delivered in Chicago, Illinois, 6 August 1912</ref>
== Trivia ==
== Trivia ==