Edmund Morris Quotes & Sayings

In our industrial and social system the interests of all men are so closely intertwined that in the immense majority of cases a straight-dealing man who by his efficiency, by his ingenuity and industry, benefits himself must also benefit others. — Edmund Morris

What worried Roosevelt was the inability of ordinary people to see the danger of this proliferation of cogs and cylinders and coins in American life.23 The corrupt power of corporations was increasing at an alarming rate, — Edmund Morris

Ensconced, he (Roosevelt) lacked some of the neuroses of progressives-economic envy and race hatred especially.His radicalism was a matter of energy rather than urgency. — Edmund Morris

Indeed, until one tries it for himself, it is incredible what dignity there is in an old hat, what virtue in a time-worn coat, and how savory the dinner-table can be made without sirloin steaks and cranberry tarts. — Edmund Morris

By now Ferris had come to the grudging conclusion that his client was "a plumb good sort." Garrulous in the cabin, Roosevelt on the trail was quiet, purposeful, and tough. "He could stand an awful lot of hard knocks, and he was always cheerful." The guide was intrigued by his habit of pulling out a book in flyblown campsites and immersing himself in it, as if he were ensconced in the luxury of the Astor Library. Most of all, perhaps, he was impressed by a casual remark Roosevelt made one night while blowing up a rubber pillow. "His doctors back East had told him that he did not have much longer to live, and that violent exercise would be immediately fatal."64 — Edmund Morris

[Theodore] Roosevelt had long ago discovered that the more provincial the supplicants, the less able were they to understand that their need was not unique: that he was not yearning to travel two thousand miles on bad trains to support the reelection campaign of a county sheriff, or to address the congregation of a new chapel in a landscape with no trees. His refusal, no matter how elaborately apologetic, was received more often in puzzlement than anger. Imaginatively challenged folks, for whom crossing a state line amounted to foreign travel, could not conceive that the gray-blue eyes inspecting them had, over the past year, similarly scrutinized Nandi warriors, Arab mullahs, Magyar landowners, French marshals, Prussian academics, or practically any monarch or minister of consequence in Europe -- not to mention the maquettes in Rodin's studio, and whatever dark truths flickered in the gaze of dying lions.

From COLONEL ROOSEVELT, p. 104. — Edmund Morris

Ordinary psyches often react to bad news with a momentary thrill, seeing the world, for once, in jagged clarity, as if lightning has just struck. But then darkness and dysfunction rush in. A mind such as Beethoven's remains illumined, or sees in the darkness shapes it never saw before, which inspire rather than terrify. This altered shape (raptus, he would say) makes art of the shapes, while holding in counterpoise such dualities as intellect and intuition, the conscious and the unconscious, mental health and mental disorder, the conventional and the unconventional, complexity and simplicity. — Edmund Morris

In El Paso," the President said approvingly, "the people are homicidal but orthodox. — Edmund Morris

There are floods of praise coming in as well as criticism. — Edmund Morris

the great fundamental questions looming before us,"21 namely, the unnatural alliance of politics and corporations. It — Edmund Morris

I think," Philander Knox teased, "it would be better to keep your action free from any taint of legality. — Edmund Morris

The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others. — Edmund Morris

[Speaker Reed's] wit was brilliant and usually cruel ... Asked to attend the funeral of a political enemy, he refused, but that does not mean to say I do not heartily approve of it. — Edmund Morris

Most of the members are positively corrupt, and the others are really singularly incompetent. — Edmund Morris

He has,in short,reached his peak as a hunter,exuberantly altered from the pale,overweight statesman of ten months ago. Africa's way of reducing every problem of existence to dire alternatives-shoot or starve,kill or be killed,shelter or suffer,procreate or count for nothing-has clarified his thinking,purged him of politics and its constant search for compromise. — Edmund Morris

Man with the Muckrake — Edmund Morris

Corporate cunning has developed faster than the laws of nation and state," he remarked to the reporter Lindsay Denison. "Sooner or later, unless there is a readjustment, there will come a riotous, wicked, murderous day of atonement. — Edmund Morris

What I cannot understand about the Russian," Roosevelt complained, "is the way he will lie when he knows perfectly well that you know he is lying. — Edmund Morris

Except for the two years he had lived with cowboys in North Dakota,and being the employer of a dozen or so servants,Roosevelt had never had to suffer any prolonged intimacy with the working class.From infancy,he had enjoyed the perquisites of money and social position.The money,through his own mismanagement,had often run short,and he was by no means wealthy even now, but he had always taken exclusivity for granted. — Edmund Morris

There is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty, — Edmund Morris

We had no longing for excessive wealth: a mere competency, though earned by daily toil, so that it was reasonably sure, and free from the drag of continued indebtedness to others, was all we coveted. — Edmund Morris

It has been objected that I am a boy," said Roosevelt wearily - he had been hearing the charge for years - "but I can only offer the time-honored reply, that years will cure me of that." He — Edmund Morris

Well, we seem to have it. — Edmund Morris

the most dangerous members of the criminal class - the criminals of great wealth. — Edmund Morris

Doctor," came the reply, "I'm going to do all the things you tell me not to do. If I've got to live the sort of life you have described, I don't care how short it is." Having spat the wormwood out, — Edmund Morris

For once, he could look back at the past without regret, and at the future without bewilderment. Simply and touchingly, he wrote in his diary: I have had so much happiness in my life so far that I feel, no matter what sorrows come, the joys will have overbalanced them. — Edmund Morris

Roosevelt gazed around the library. A glint in his spectacles betrayed displeasure. Loeb came up inquiringly, and there was a whispered conversation in which the words newspapermen and sufficient room were audible. Hurrying outside, Loeb returned with two dozen delighted scribes. They proceeded to report the subsequent ceremony with a wealth of detail unmatched in the history of presidential inaugurations. — Edmund Morris

A remarkable consensus of Democratic and Republican editorial writers held that Roosevelt would be as "conservative" as McKinley. The very unanimity of this opinion seemed contrived, as if to soothe a nervous stock market. The financial pages reported that "Severe Shocks," "Feverish Trading," and "Heavy Declines" had hit Wall Street on Friday, when the Gold Dollar President began to die. Roosevelt knew little about money - it was one of the few subjects that bored him - but even he could see that one false move this weekend might bring about a real panic on Monday. — Edmund Morris

Norway ... looked to Roosevelt as funny a kingdom as was ever imagined outside of opera bouffe ... It is much as if Vermont should offhand try the experiment of having a king. — Edmund Morris

We infinitely desire peace, and the surest way of obtaining it is to show that we are not afraid of war. — Edmund Morris

History admires the wise, but elevates the brave. — Edmund Morris

We must never exercise our rights either wickedly or thoughtlessly; we can continue to preserve them in but one possible way, by making the proper use of them. — Edmund Morris

[Bram Stoker] wrote in his diary: Must be President some day. A man you can't cajole, can't frighten, can't buy. — Edmund Morris

Theodore," [Theodore Sr] said, eschewing boyish nicknames, "you have the mind but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. You must make your body. It is hard drudgery to make one's body, but I know you will do it. — Edmund Morris

[Henry James] privately characterized Roosevelt as "a dangerous and ominous jingo," and "the mere monstrous embodiment of unprecedented and resounding Noise. — Edmund Morris

Wall Street billionaires are predicting that Roosevelt-style railroad rate regulation will sooner or later bring about financial catastrophe. [ca. 1906] — Edmund Morris

Later he wrote to Lodge: I don't grudge the broken arm a bit ... I'm always ready to pay the piper when I've had a good dance; and every now and then I like to drink the wine of life with brandy in it. — Edmund Morris

the most trenchant commentary was — Edmund Morris

Theodore Senior belonged to a class and a generation that considered politics to be a dirty business, best left, like street cleaning, to malodorous professionals. — Edmund Morris

Implicit in the stare of those eyes, the power of those knobbly hands, was labor's historic threat of violence against capital. — Edmund Morris

[Joseph Bucklin Bishop said] "...The peculiarity about him is that he has what is essentially a boy's mind. What he thinks he says at once, says aloud. It is his distinguishing characteristic, and I don't know as he will ever outgrow it. But with it he has great qualities which make him an invaluable public servant--inflexible honesty, absolute fearlessness, and devotion to good government which amounts to religion. We must let him work his way, for nobody can induce him to change it. — Edmund Morris

I'm aware of the- the fact that people elsewhere in the world think differently from us. I can sort of see us, us Americans with their eyes. And not all that I see is- is attractive. I see an insular people who are- are insensitive to foreign sensibilities, who are lazy, obese, complacent and increasingly perplexed as to why we are losing our place in the world to people who are more dynamic than us and more disciplined — Edmund Morris

Roosevelt remarked on the anomaly whereby man, as he progressed from savagery to civilization, used up more and more of the world's resources, yet in doing so tended to move to the city, and lost his sense of dependence on nature. — Edmund Morris

We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism ... — Edmund Morris

... I would rather go out of politics having the feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I have acted as I ought not to. — Edmund Morris

We should not forget that it will be just as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time as it is to us to be prosperous in our time. — Edmund Morris

Three cheers for Mr. and Mrs. Bower and their really satisfactory American family of twelve children! — Edmund Morris

Just because we cannot stop all the large leaks, that is no reason why we should open up all the little ones."
T. Roosevelt — Edmund Morris

In the tired hand of a dying man, Theodore Senior had written: The 'Machine politicians' have shown their colors ... I feel sorry for the country however as it shows the power of partisan politicians who think of nothing higher than their own interests, and I feel for your future. We cannot stand so corrupt a government for any great length of time. — Edmund Morris

Unless wealth was chastened by culture or regulated by government, it was at worst predatory, at best boring. — Edmund Morris

Nobody likes him now but the people, — Edmund Morris

It is idle to hope for the enforcement of a law where nineteen-twentieths of the people do not believe in the justice of its provisions. — Edmund Morris

The Kaiser was enough of a man to stand a tough, confidential message--and enough of a woman, presumably, to retreat if it could be made to look glamorous. — Edmund Morris

If he was less motivated by compassion than anger at what he saw as the arrogance of capital,he chafed,nonetheless,to regulate it. — Edmund Morris

much of a muchness. — Edmund Morris