In "Quotes"

Below are quotations from the speeches and writings of TR. Each is followed by a series of questions that you may want to raise with your students.

"The object of the government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens."

Questions to Consider:

• What is the "welfare of the people"?
• Do you agree that it is the purpose of the government? Why or why not?
• Who would TR have considered a "good" citizen?

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life."

Questions to Consider:

• What does "ignoble" mean?
• What does TR mean by the "doctrine of the strenuous life"?
• How did he adhere to that doctrine in his own life?

"Of all forms of tyranny, the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth."

Questions to Consider:

• Why do you think TR, from a well-to-do family, might consider wealth to be vulgar or tyrannical?
• How is his characterization of wealth contrary to the "American Dream" of prosperity?
• Do you think this sentiment would be popular today? Why or why not?

"To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed."

Questions to Consider:

• How do you think TR would view today's environmental activists?
• What environmental issues would most concern him and why?

"While president I have been president, emphatically; I have used every ounce of power there was in the office and I have not cared a rap for the criticisms of those who spoke of my 'usurpation of power'; for I knew that the talk was all nonsense and that there was no usurpation... I have felt not merely that my action was right in itself, but that in showing the strength of, or in giving strength to, the executive, I was establishing a precedent of value."

Questions to Consider:

• What does this quotation reveal about TR's personality?
• Do you agree that he established a "precedent of value"?
• How much power do you believe a president should have?

"Personally I believe in woman's suffrage, but I am not an enthusiastic advocate of it... I do not think that giving the women suffrage will produce any marked improvement in the condition of women. I don't believe that it will produce any of the evils feared, and I am very certain that when women as a whole take any special interest in the matter they will have suffrage if they desire it."

Questions to Consider:

• Why do you think TR wasn't willing to be a stronger advocate for women?
• Did suffrage produce a "marked improvement" in the lives of women? If so, how??