Tonight, I have written out part of Teddy Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship in a Republic.” Many people seem to find helpful. I am rewriting here to remember it.

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 up short again and again, because there is no effort withour error or shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best in the end knows the triumph of great achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.