Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena"

MentalFloss ^ | April 23, 2015 | Erin McCarthy

[Daffynition]

Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images

On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt gave what would become one of the most widely quoted speeches of his career. The former president—who left office in 1909—had spent a year hunting in Central Africa before embarking on a tour of Northern Africa and Europe in 1910, attending events and giving speeches in places like Cairo, Berlin, Naples, and Oxford. He stopped in Paris on April 23, and, at 3 p.m. at the Sorbonne, before a crowd that included, according to the Edmund Morris biography Colonel Roosevelt, “ministers in court dress, army and navy officers in full uniform, nine hundred students, and an audience of two thousand ticket holders,” Roosevelt delivered a speech called “Citizenship in a Republic,” which, among some, would come to be known as “The Man in the Arena.”

[Daffynition]

"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."

[3RIVRS]

As a former TR/CVN71 sailor this speech has been drilled in to my skull. The money quote is even in my shadow box.

[Daffynition]

Timeless speech. Timeless words.

BTW, thank you for your service. :)

[Daffynition]

[mad_as_he$$]

Were you watching “Blue Bloods” reruns?

[be-baw]

I’m about halfway through Morris’ second volume of his three volume TR biography. Great reading. I’ve read about a half dozen presidential biographies. I enjoyed them all but this one is probably best. Excellent writing, it flows very well. Volume 1 deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

Highly recommended.

[Sans-Culotte]

I read all three volumes. Definitely a great biography. Morris is weird, particularly when it came to his Reagan book, but the TR trilogy is superb.

[cranked]

Yo, I am surprised someone has not yet made a Teddy Roosevelt movie starring Tom Selleck as Teddy, just an amazing resemblance.

[cyclotic]

I think of that quote often.

For all of us who reflexively stand for our principles against overwhelming odds we are the man in the arena/

We’re going to get bruised battered and beaten, but we still get up and fight.

I volunteer with a youth organization with a mission statement that reads:

“To guide generations of courageous young men to honor God, lead with integrity, serve others and experience outdoor adventure”

Think we get some flaming arrows shot at us?

But we know at the end the triumph of high achievement and how to spend ourselves for a worthy cause.

Whatever your cause-Dare greatly.

[Bratch]

Link to full speech:

[real saxophonist]

There’s a good movie (actually miniseries) called ‘Rough Riders’, with Tom Berenger as T.R.

[exnavy]

Wow, thank you for your service, when i was active the big nuclear carriers Nimmitz and Ike. Seems like so long ago.

[exnavy]

if you are not aware of it, navsource.org is a great place to visit.

[Daffynition]

Your recommendation is appreciated.....THX.

I’ll see if my very tiny library in NEK [northern Vermont] can order it for me. That will be a challenge. :D it sounds like its worth the effort. :D

[Daffynition]

Thank you for the link.

FWIW: Trivia:

Theodore Roosevelt was the first President to fly an airplane, to own a car, to have a telephone in his home and travel outside the borders of the U.S. while still in office.

[Daffynition]

Good on you! The only man I knew who was as close to a clone of TR that ever walked this planet. :)

"Dream Big and Dare To Fail"

[Daffynition]

;D

I can only say, that few people rise to the level of a “Man in the Arena” as well as Rush, Trump and Mark Levin.

Thank God for them.

[TnTnTn]

Excellent!!!!…we are so destroyed...

[minnesota_bound]

#1 there is always a critic : )

[pepsi_junkie]

I’m about halfway through Morris’ second volume of his three volume TR biography.

It was so well done that Reagan brought him in to be his official biographer, with unprecedented white house access. He produced a book that was useless.