Theodore Roosevelt
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
― Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States, gave a speech entitled Citizenship in a Republic, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910. This notable passage is often referred to as The Man in the Arena.
The full speech at the Theodore Roosevelt Center »
This page was last updated on 2021.03.27