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Like all Americans, I like big things: big prairies, big forests and mountains, big wheat-fields, railroads, and herds of cattle too, big factories, steamboats, and everything else. But we must keep steadily in mind that no people were ever yet benefitted by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue… each one must do this part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune. Here we are not ruled over by others, as in the case in Europe; here we rule ourselves… When we rule ourselves, we have the responsibilities of sovereigns, not of subjects. We must never exercise our rights either wickedly or thoughtlessly; we can continue to preserve them in but one possible way, by making the proper use of them.
Theodore Roosevelt
