Friday, April 23, 2010

The Man in the Arena - 100 Years Ago Today

On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt spoke at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. His speech, titled Citizenship in a Republic, made headlines around the world. A small portion of that speech has become one of the most famous of TR's quotations.

This is for my friends who are men and women in the arena today.

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 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.