Quotes by famous people that aren’t accurate get shared on the Internet with some regularity, to the point where a website called Quote Investigator regularly looks into and debunks them. But such fake quotes don’t often end up on the side of federal buildings.
That did happen this week, when a banner, in conjunction with the nation’s 250th birthday, appeared on the side of the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building, which houses the Office of Personnel Management, featuring that president’s picture and a quote attributed to him. However, per The Washington Post, that quote — “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength” – was not genuinely said by the 26th president.
“What I can say for certain is that the quote did not originate with Theodore Roosevelt,” Michael Patrick Cullinane, co-director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, told the Post.
A giant banner bearing the face of Theodore Roosevelt decorates the facade of the Office of Personnel Management in D.C. and carries an inspirational quote attributed to the late leader.
Historians say the 26th president never uttered the phrase. https://t.co/r2jTNqXhXs
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 17, 2026
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Fake quotes by Roosevelt, in fact, are so common that the Roosevelt Center maintains a list of them.
Steve Herman, the Executive Director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy & Innovation, appears to have noticed the mistake first.
ICYMI: https://t.co/P1Kyr8fDHa pic.twitter.com/thzr0e303J
— Steve Herman (@newsguyusa) June 15, 2026
Herman described himself to the Post as a “Roosevelt fan,” at first thought the banner was “pretty cool,” but then realized something: He “never saw that in any of the books I read about Teddy Roosevelt,” and after researching further, he determined, “This one, there was just no evidence.”
An OPM spokesperson was asked about the mistake- and it doesn’t sound like they’re particularly sorry.
McLaurine Pinover, an OPM spokesperson, told the Post that the bogus quotation “is commonly attributed to Roosevelt and captures the spirit of the federal workforce.”
“As excited as we are about America 250, it’s surprising the Washington Post has taken such an interest in our small agency’s building banners. Slow news day?,” she told the newspaper.
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
