Now Reading:

TR on the Civil War and pride of southerners:

TR's father would donate his time to the education of orphaned boys and organizations that fought animal cruelty. One of the boys he helped send to a school out west became governor of Alaska.

TR would follow in his footsteps.

TRs mother was what he described as an "unreconstructed" southern woman. His father was an ardent Lincoln Republican. When the kids were mad at one, they'd pray for the success of the Union or Confederacy as appropriate.

I'm most struck by how wholesome his childhood was and how robbed the future generations of Americans are to likely never experience something even approaching that quality.

It was not until he was 13 that TR realized he needed glasses, having been given his first gun, and found himself "puzzled to find that my companions could see things to shoot at which I could not see at all"...

When I was 4, my parents were briefly mad and thought I was lazy because I'd ask things like what time it was, what channel the TV was on... I knew my numbers, the clock was digital...as it turned out, I had incredibly bad vision. They've repeatedly told me how bad they felt lol

On Harvard: "there was very little in my actual studies which helped me in after life"

On the limits of individualism and the weakening of moral purpose that can arise from excessive collectivism:

After I finish this I'll be reading:

Elihu Root (Authorized biography by Philip C. Jessup)

Promise of American Life - Herbert Croly

New Democracy - Walter E. Weyl

Organized Labor: Its Problems, Purposes, and Ideals - John Mitchell

(not endorsements, save for the first.)

The time TR hunted a grizzly bear alone after his mountain guide drank his whiskey, became belligerent, threatened him with his rifle, and TR was forced to disarm him at gunpoint.

TR on wrestling while a governor and being thought weird for it. Turning to boxing as president, becoming partially blinded by one of his old military subordinates, deciding he was too old for the squared circle...and instead taking up jiu jitsu.

Here's the reaction of the man who blinded him (TR never told him!): https://twitter.com/TweetBrettMac/status/1257577546524381184?s=19

And here's the guy TR brought over from Japan to teach him jiu jitsu (TR got him a job teaching at the US naval academy): https://twitter.com/TweetBrettMac/status/1256331043159764993?s=19

Yamashita Yoshitsugo was an absolute madman like TR. He and his buddy once picked a fight with 17 people. Some had knives. They won, and intentionally broke a few arms along the way. He took on 15 alone once, won, killed a dude in the process, and was arrested and acquitted.

TR hated bullfighting. Thought that spectator sports were lame. Banned prize fighting in NY as governor because the matches were constantly rigged and felt "commercialism" was a far greater brutality than any combat sport could be itself.

TR on career politicians.

(Sorry for this spam, this thread is mostly for my own amusement but I think his words have an evergreen virtue)