Human rights higher than property rights.

• Author: Roosevelt, Theodore
• Position: 1910 - Brief article

May 7, 1910

(From his address at the Sorbonne, France, April 23, 1910 )

I decline to recognize the man of mere wealth as an asset of value to any country, and especially as an asset to my own country. If he has earned or uses his wealth in a way that makes him of real benefit, why, then he does become an asset of worth. But it is the way in which it has been earned or used, and not the mere fact of wealth, that entitles him to the credit.

It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and...