The Man in the Arena
By Theodore Roosevelt
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 and timid souls
who neither know victory nor defeat.