[Ads-l] Quote Trace: Courage is not having the strength to go on =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=A6_?=(Attrib. T. Roosevelt)

[Jeff Prucher]

 That volume references an earlier publication for the source of the letters: "Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children. Edited by Joseph Bucklin Bishop. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1919."
Internet Archive has a plethora of printings of that earlier book (e.g. https://archive.org/details/theodorerooseve02roosgoog/mode/2up). They also fail to have any quotations resembling this that I can find, either (based on keyword searches).
Very mysterious.
Jeff Prucher    On Monday, June 15, 2026 at 04:32:52 PM PDT, ADSGarson O'Toole <00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:  
 
 According to a message on Bluesky a banner has been hung on the
Roosevelt Federal Building with a quotation attributed to the Theodore
Roosevelt which may be incorrect.

[Begin BlueSky info]
https://bsky.app/profile/newsguy.bsky.social/post/3modxku32ep2q
Steve Herman @newsguy.bsky.social
Big banner with a Teddy quote about courage on the Theodore Roosevelt
Federal Building, headquarters of OPM. Only discrepancy is that the
26th president never said this.
[End BlueSky info]

I received a request to investigate. A version was circulating by
1972. Ken Harris used the saying in a poem.

[ref] 1972 February 19, Springfield Daily News, Courage by Ken Harris,
Quote Page 4, Column 6, Springfield, Ohio. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

https://www.newspapers.com/article/springfield-news-sun-courage/199650699/

[Begin excerpt]
COURAGE  By
KEN HARRIS  (2177 Sunset av.)

COURAGE isn't having the
strength to go on--
It's going on when you haven't
got the strength.

COURAGE isn't confidence that
comes from being aware of
all that's happening--
[End excerpt]

Here is another match on September 5, 1979
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-alexandria-times-tribune-courage/199651650/

An intriguing match in 1997 claims that T. Roosevelt wrote the saying
in a letter.

[ref] 1997, Letters Home: Advice from the Wisest Men and Women of the
Ages to Their Friends and Loved Ones by George Grant & Karen Grant,
Section: Courage, Quote Page 42, Cumberland House, Nashville,
Tennessee. (Verified with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Theodore Roosevelt to His Daughter Alice
American author, adventurer, and president, 1858-1919

Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you
don't have the strength. Industry and determination can do anything
that genius and advantage can do and many things that they cannot.
[End excerpt]

The source note for this quotation says the following:

[Begin note on page 221]
... Theodore Roosevelt, The Complete Works, vol. XIX, (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), p. 331; ...
[End note]

Here is link to "Works of Theodore Roosevelt" Vol XIX, 1926 edition in
the Internet Archive. This volume does contain letters from Roosevelt
to his children, unnfortunately I cannot find the quotation.

https://archive.org/details/foesofourownhous0019unse/page/n9/mode/2up

Help and feedback welcome
Garson

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