Man in the Arena
by Teddy Roosevelt 
April 23, 1910
 
"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."