Theodore Roosevelt

It is not the critic who counts

One of United States President Teddy Roosevelt’s most famous speeches on the perseverance of the enlightened individual.

“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 and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who, at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt 1892-1945”