Theodore Roosevelt - the Man in the Arena

Here are some insightful words, equally suitable for men and women, from Theodore Roosevelt's "Citizen in a Republic" speech in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910 (the photo is from an earlier trip to Haverhill, MA). With due respect to our twenty-sixth President, critics count, too. But for many of us good Cornellians, the problem isn't that we dare too much and criticize too little, but that we criticize too much and dare too little.

"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."