It is not the critic that counts…

This quote was given to me during a particularly trying time at work.  At the time, it felt like I was in the center of a storm dealing with issues from everywhere and everyone.   A good manager slipped this on my desk one day…

“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, and 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 the 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 know neither victory nor defeat.”

– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President, From CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC, Delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.

Roosevelt, Theodore. History as Literature. New York:
Charles Scribner’s sons, 1913; Bartleby.com, 1998. http://www.bartleby.com/56/ .
27 Oct 2000.

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