Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of the United States, 1901–1909; Governor of New York 1899–1900; Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897–1898
Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into a fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world!
Recorded
Sorbonne, Paris, The American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara, 23 April 1910
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Eleanor Roosevelt
First Lady of the United States 1933–1945; United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly 1945–1952; Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights 1946–1951
Tolerance ought only to be a preliminary step which allows us to get to know other people, and which prevents us from setting up bars, just because they may be of a different race or religion. The real value of any relationship is the fact that we learn to like people in spite of our differences.
Recorded
'My Day' syndicated newspaper column, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, The George Washington University, 24 November 1943
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Barack Obama
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Security. People naturally resist change in our personal lives. … Malia, actually, was the one who brought it up because she says, 'You know, one of the things that happens is sometimes transitions are hard, and I really enjoy my life, and I like how things are going.' And I said, 'Get in the habit of being able to embrace change, and what's new. Because you don't want to live your life where, you are held back because you've gotten too comfortable, and you are afraid of what might be out there around the corner.'
Recorded
Barbara Walters, ABC News 20/20, broadcast 23 December 2011, 22 December 2011
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