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Who really said it

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing

Spoken by Theodore Roosevelt 1858–1919 · 26th President of the United States
Verified Free to reuse

Roosevelt said this in his Labor Day address to the New York State Agricultural Association at Syracuse, New York, on 7 September 1903 — the speech now remembered as “The Square Deal.” The wording is confirmed word-for-word against the published text on Wikisource and the American Presidency Project.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing” Theodore Roosevelt, "The Square Deal" address, Syracuse, NY, September 7, 1903

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In context

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Provenance

The source

Speaker
Theodore Roosevelt
Work
Labor Day address to the New York State Agricultural Association (“The Square Deal”)
Occasion
New York State Fair, Syracuse, NY — 7 September 1903
First published
1903 (contemporary press & Roosevelt’s collected addresses)

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing; and this is a prize open to every man, for there can be no better worth doing than that done to keep in health and comfort and with reasonable advantages those immediately dependent upon the husband, the father, or the son.

The line opens a passage on the dignity of ordinary labor in Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” address.

Read “The Square Deal” in full on Wikisource

How we know

Public domain

The address was delivered and published in 1903 — well before 1931 — so the text is in the public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

Misquotation watch

The attribution to Roosevelt is correct — the usual error is in the wording, not the author.

“…the best prize that life has to offer” Paraphrase

Countless quote sites render the line as “the best prize that life has to offer,” but the published address reads simply “the best prize that life offers.”

Genuine Roosevelt: the sentence stands verbatim in his 7 September 1903 “Square Deal” Labor Day address at Syracuse.

Context

Why it mattered

Roosevelt spoke on Labor Day, 7 September 1903, before farmers and workers at the New York State Fair. The address is where he popularized the phrase “a square deal” — his promise that every American, capitalist or laborer, deserved fair treatment.

The line about “work worth doing” sits at the heart of that message: Roosevelt argued that honest labor, freely chosen, was open to every person and was itself the finest thing life could offer.

The best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Work Purpose

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

The Square Deal (full text)en.wikisource.org

Complete text of the 7 September 1903 Syracuse address, containing the quoted sentence.
Address at Syracuse, NYpresidency.ucsb.edu

American Presidency Project catalog entry and full text, dated 7 September 1903.
Theodore Roosevelt (biography)en.wikipedia.org

Background on the 26th U.S. President and his “strenuous life” philosophy.
TR Association quotationstheodoreroosevelt.org

Curated quotations from Roosevelt’s speeches and writings, maintained by the Theodore Roosevelt Association.
The Square Deal (transcript)americanliterature.com

Independent transcript of the same Labor Day address for cross-checking.

The true source

About Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

1858–1919 · 26th President of the United States

Theodore Roosevelt led the United States from 1901 to 1909, championing conservation, trust-busting, and what he called the “strenuous life.” A prolific speaker and author, he delivered the “Square Deal” address on Labor Day 1903, tying national fairness to the dignity of honest work. The line about “work worth doing” distills his lifelong conviction that meaningful effort, not ease, is life’s greatest reward.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Theodore Roosevelt, “The Square Deal” (address to the New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse, NY, September 7, 1903).

MLA (9th ed.)

Roosevelt, Theodore. “The Square Deal.” Address to the New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse, NY, 7 Sept. 1903.

APA (7th ed.)

Roosevelt, T. (1903, September 7). The square deal [Speech]. New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse, NY.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/far-and-away-the-best-prize-that-life-offers-is-the-chance

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