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Inspiring Quotations

It is not the critic who counts.


Here’s a short passage which I have been reciting in my workshops for a few years to impress on students the importance of being positive and constructive when giving feedback to their peers:

“It is not the critic who counts; not one who points out how the strong stumble, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to one 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 not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends themself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if they fail, at least they fail while daring greatly. So that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Extract from the speech – “CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC – The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt (26th US President) at The University of Paris, Sorbonne on 23rd April 1910 (adapted to be gender neutral).