“Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!”
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Theodore Roosevelt 445
American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858–1919Related quotes

Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say (2000)

“Mercifully, Henry hit him with the soft end of the pistol.”
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1978)

“Hit first! Hit hard! Keep on hitting!! (The 3 H's)”
p274 https://archive.org/stream/memoriesbyadmira00fishuoft#page/274/mode/1up
Memories (1919) https://archive.org/stream/memoriesbyadmira00fishuoft#page/n0/mode/2up

As "Mr. Lee" in Enter the Dragon (1973); Bruce Lee's character said this to Robert Wall's character "O'Hara", after the latter had broken a board in the air with his fist in an act of attempted intimidation.

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Context: I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strongperson is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of [[love].