Subject:     “The Man in the Arena”

 

 

It is not the critic who counts,

Not the one who points out

How the strong man stumbles,

Or how the doer of deeds might have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is active in the arena,

Whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood;

Who strives valiantly;

Who errs and comes short again and again;

Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion,

And spends himself in a worthy cause.

Who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement,

And who, if he fails at least fails while daring greatly....

So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls

Who know neither victory nor defeat.

 

....Teddy Roosevelt, address at the Sarbonne, 1910