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, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; 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 [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,” address delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, 23 April 1910; Presidential Addresses and State Papers and European Addresses, December 8, 1908, to June 7, 1910, vol. 8 of Presidential Addresses and State Papers, Homeward Bound edition (New York: Review of Reviews Co., 1910), 2191.)
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