VARIOUS READERS have sent this link to a speech by Teddy Roosevelt about the Nobel Peace Prize:

We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness, justice as between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead our lives on a somewhat higher level, with a broader spirit of brotherly goodwill one for another. Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft, effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality.

Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds, or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Terror prattled of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction.

It’s styled as an “Acceptance Speech,” but Roosevelt actually got the prize in 1906, and didn’t accept in person. It’s good, though I don’t agree with the way some “national greatness” conservatives make use of TR. I’m all for national greatness, but I don’t believe that the greatness of a nation is determined by government programs and jobs for political apparatchiks administering and flacking for them. But TR is right that peace is only one virtue among others, and right to note that neglecting certain virtues, which until recently had become unstylish, is likely to have bad consequences.

UPDATE: Et tu, Teddy? A couple of readers saw the term “Red Terror” and wondered if this was another phony quote like the Julius Caesar passage that ensnared Barbra Streisand. No. At least, it’s also on the official Nobel site and — unlike the phony Caesar quote — is in character. A footnote there says — as I assumed without even thinking — that the “Red Terror” TR is referring to is the French Revolution, not the later Red Terrors that succeeded it.