Echoes

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

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.

Force has no place where there is need of skill.

The best fighter is never angry.

Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.

If you want peace, prepare for war.

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.

Grace under pressure.

Silence is a source of great strength.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Whoever gives reverence receives reverence.

We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.

Don't let anyone impose on you. Don't be quarrelsome, but stand up for your rights. If you've got to fight, fight hard and well. To my mind, a coward is the only thing meaner than a liar.

Know how to refuse. One ought not to give way in everything nor to everybody.

Do the thing, and you shall have the power; but they who do not do the thing have not the power.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.