Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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| one he has become both. What better character could you or I or anybody give our day, which the croakers say worships only success? Put it the other way, that we refuse to accept the goodness that is weak-kneed and cowardly, that we demand of the champion of right that he shall believe in his cause enough to fight for it, and you have it. Look at him in every walk of life, from boyhood, when by sheer willpower he conquered his puny body that he might take his place among men and do a man’s work, and see how plain, straightforward manliness won its way despite the plotters. See him going on his way, bearing no grudges, nursing no revenge,—you cannot afford those things if you want to make the most of yourself,—believing no evil, but ever the best, of his neighbor, and craving his help for the best. The secret of the ages which the wise men sought with toil and trouble and missed, he found in his path without seeking. The talisman that turns dross to gold is your own faith in your fellow-man. Whatever you believe him to be, with the faith that makes you love your neighbor in spite of himself, that he will become. He will come up or come down to it, as you make |