Are you in the arena kicking ass or in the cheap seats?

This woman just spoke to me with what she is saying here. This is for all my writerly friends, but really any of you because we’re all in the arena in some way.

 

 

 

Excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech:

THE MAN IN THE ARENA
                                          Excerpt from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic”
                                          delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910 
                                          download PDF of complete speech 

“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.” 

 

 

 

http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html