Theodore Roosevelt did not believe it. When he was about fourteen,
and riding in a stage-coach on the way to Moosehead Lake, two
other boys in the coach began tormenting him. When he tried to
fight them off, he found himself helpless. Either of them could
handle him, could hit him and prevent him from hitting back. He
decided that it was a matter of self-respect for a boy to know how
to protect himself and he learned to box.
Speaking to boys he said later:
"One prime reason for abhorring cowards is because every good boy
should have it in him to thrash the objectionable boy as the need
arises."
And again:
"The very fact that the boy should be manly and able to hold his
own, that he should be ashamed to submit to bullying, without
instant retaliation, should in return, make him abhor any form of
bullying, cruelty, or brutality."
[Footnote: These two quotations from essay called "The American
Boy" in "The Strenuous Life," pp. 162, 164]
When he was teaching a Sunday School class in Cambridge, during
his time at college, one of his pupils came in with a black eye.
It turned out that another boy had teased and pinched the first
boy's sister during church. Afterwards there had been a fight, and
the one who tormented the little girl had been beaten, but he had
given the brother a black eye.
"You did quite right," said Roosevelt to the brother and gave him
a dollar.
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