Words to Live By

When thinking about the apathy that grips the citizen-sovereign today I think back to speech that inspired me many times while on active duty when two paths presented themselves as a course of action. One path would continue the status quo, the other would be hard to accomplish but worth every hardship encountered. It comes from Teddy Roosevelt’s speech titled Citizenship in a Republic at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on 23 April 1910. The part that inspires me is often referred to as “The Man in the Arena” and here it is — “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.” So, when things starting getting tough in trying to reclaim our Constitutional Republic, read that. I hope that it inspires you like it does me.