Thursday 15 January 2009

Theodore Roosevelt



Those who know me well will know that it is not in my nature to big up right wing Americans. However, to all rules there are exceptions and the Theodore Roosevelt was an exception to EVERY rule.

Evidence of Roosevelt's sheer awesomeness can be found at the following links:

http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_p5.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt#Character_and_beliefs

Anyway, this quote is brilliant and requires sharing:

"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 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 up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

6 comments:

Ray said...

Brilliant quote - never has a truer word been said.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

The other great right wing yank is the duke

Ben Willans said...

the duke?

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Ben - shame on you. The Duke - John Wayne

Ben Willans said...

Nah, I'm not having Marian "war mongering, draft dodger" Morrison on my list.

I will however, readily concede Jimmy Stewart.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Jimmy was to the left of the Duke, mind you so was everyone else. But Duke's politics aside he was a legend and he's still out there, man.