Tuesday, March 19, 2013

In the arena...


I know this comes from an American President but to be honest I really like reading about the Roosevelts and his speeches are amongst the best (take note future dictators of the world). Elenor Roosevelt (his wife) was the genius behind the quote where 'no one can make you feel inferior without your consent' (or something like that). But Teddy's (as I like to call him) quote below... this is the one to take with you to a fight and silence all those weak beings who criticise because they lack the strength or courage to do it themselves.

"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 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 and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."


Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

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