“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.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Teddy Roosevelt was a doer amongst doers. After losing his wife and mother on the same day, the young New York state assemblyman became a Dakota rancher, then later in life a New York City Police Commissioner, Colonel in the Spanish American War (as well as Assistant Secretary of the Navy), and two term President of the United States.
Even after his Presidency, and after a failed assassination attempt in which he was shot, then 60 year old Teddy Roosevelt set out on an expedition to navigate an uncharted river in the rainforest of South America. The expedition took the lives of 3 men. Roosevelt himself considered this adventure, perhaps, the challenge of a life time.
“The River of Doubt” by Candice Millard
