Bill Nelson

I missed this post by one day but yesterday here in Australia (April 23rd) today in the USA marks the 100 year anniversary of US President Theodore Roosevelt Citizen In The Republic speech. The speech was delivered at the Sorbonne in the Grand Amphitheater at the University of Paris.

The speech itself is probably not that well known however the Man In The Arena paragraph has been a source of insight and inspiration for so many over the past 100 years. Yours truly included. The fact is I have The Man In The Arena sitting on my desk, I have it on my computer and wherever or whenever appropriate I reiterate it to anyone and everyone that I believe will benefit from theses famous words.

Today I reprint them for you.

It's not the critic that 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, who's 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 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 worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
The Man in the Arena
Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910