The Strenuous Life
"The Strenuous Life" is a speech delivered by Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of New York and later the 26th President of the United States, in Chicago, Illinois, on April 10, 1899. Delivered during the Philippine–American War (1899–1902), he argued that a life of ease, material comfort, and avoidance of struggle led to national and individual decay, and that Americans must instead embrace strenuous effort, hardship, and martial strife for both individual success and national greatness, while explicitly advocating for American imperialism.