In The Arena

The following is a speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt. He delivered it at the University of Paris at Sorbonne Paris, France on April 23 1910:

In The Arena

In the battle of life it is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled,
or where the doer of a deed 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 short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions,
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 and timid souls
who have tasted neither victory nor defeat.