Man in the Arena – Daring Greatly | by Theodore Roosevelt

In General Interest, Quotes by Steve Sliwa

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.

“Citizenship in a Republic,”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Share this Post