Inspiration

This is one of my favorite speeches, taken from Theodore Roosevelt's 'Citizenship in a Republic' speech. I think that this is pertinent to anyone who is out there training for a marathon (or any race, for that matter), putting out the effort. we all suffer setbacks and personal defeats, but this validates the effort that we all put forth. Anyway, we all could use some inspiration, and this is good stuff. This is hanging on my refrigerator.



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 in 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