Alfred Henry Lewis

1855–1914 · American journalist and novelist

Alfred Henry Lewis (1855–1914) was an American muckraking journalist, lawyer, and novelist, known for exposing Tammany Hall corruption and for his popular Wolfville Western stories. Around 1910 he wrote admiringly of Theodore Roosevelt’s bias for action, coining the “do the right thing… the worst thing is to stand perfectly still” formulation that was later smoothed into a polished aphorism and misattributed to Roosevelt himself.

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“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing”

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