Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.
Roosevelt did not coin the line: he quotes it in his Autobiography as “a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener, of Widener’s Valley, Virginia”. It circulates online as Roosevelt’s own, but he credits it to Widener.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Nine-tenths of wisdom is to be wise in time, and at the right time;
There is a homely adage which runs, “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, / The Man’s the gowd for a’ that.