Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Man in the Arena


I decided to alter my commute to work this morning - I ran. The route I picked was a nice 30KM. It was a bit chilly for May - I was glad that I had my gloves with me. Nonetheless... While running I was thinking about President Theodore Roosevelt's speech at the Sorbonne in April 1910. Along with Rudyard Kipling's If, it is among my favorites...

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 timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.



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