It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, in the end knows the triumph in 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 of cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt.
Wow. What an incredible quote, if you ask me. I guess it's encouraging when you can realize that even when you may be hurting, even when you may be failing, it's only because you actually tried something. You cannot have failure without having put out some effort, right? And while failures aren't very much fun while you're in the midst of them, it's empowering to know what it was that brought you there. It was a sense of belief that you could do it. It was a conscious effort on your part to make something that is into something that could be. I'd like to think that's what life is about: the drive and the strive to hope for what you believe to be possible. It's like another quote I've been repeating to myself for a few weeks now: At the end of your life, you're far more likely to regret the things you didn't do over the things you did.
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