The Man in the Arena

¹It 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.

²The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

³who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,

⁴because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

⁵but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

⁶who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

⁷who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

⁸and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,

⁹so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.