On Boxing

"I regard boxing professional and amateur, as a vigorous, healthful sport that develops courage, keenness of mind, quickness of eye, and a combativeness that fits every boy who engages in it for the daily tasks that confront him." "It is not half so brutalizing or demoralizing as many forms of big business, and certain legal work that is often carried on to help such business." "I have often thought that if we had more boys' clubs where the art was taught, we would have fewer adolescent criminals, the street-corner type of hoodlum, and would breed a better class of young American citizens - the future voters. Boxing develops elements of character that are difficult to obtain in other sports: fairness, a spirit of give-and-take, courage, and alertness." " It is only the bully who wants to give and avoid the taking. If boxing were taught in every public and secondary school and in college, this nation would soon find it rid of the bullies and would develop in our youth a spirit of manhood, a spirit that teaches fairness to our fellow men. We would be rid of street corner rowdies and cowards and make our boys a better, sturdier, and healthier lot." - President Teddy Roosevelt