The Man In The Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of the deed could have done better.

The credit belongs to the Man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly: who errs, who comes short again and again; for there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end of triumph of high achievement and who at worst if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never ranked with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Roosevelt,
Paris
April 23, 1910.