351
In this life we get nothing save by effort.
Theodore Rooseveltverified·The Strenuous Life, an address before the Hamilton Club, Chicago·April 10, 1899
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352
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Rooseveltverified·The Strenuous Life, an address before the Hamilton Club, Chicago·April 10, 1899
353
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Rooseveltverified·The Strenuous Life, an address before the Hamilton Club, Chicago·April 10, 1899
354
Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution.
355
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
Theodore Rooseveltverified·Citizenship in a Republic, in African and European Addresses·April 23, 1910
356
The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.
Theodore Rooseveltverified·Citizenship in a Republic, in African and European Addresses·April 23, 1910
357
There is little place in active life for the timid good man.
Theodore Rooseveltverified·Citizenship in a Republic, in African and European Addresses·April 23, 1910
358
success--the real success--does not depend upon the position you hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position
Theodore Rooseveltverified·The Conditions of Success, an address at the Cambridge Union·May 26, 1910
359
There is a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener, of Widener's Valley, Virginia, which sums up one's duty in life: Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are.
Wrongly attributed
Roosevelt did not coin this. He quotes it in his Autobiography and names its author: Squire Bill Widener of Widener's Valley, Virginia, a neighbour with no other claim on posterity. It is now printed on posters and mugs as Roosevelt's own, usually shortened to Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. The sentence around it is the evidence that it was never his.
360
Genius is 1 per cent. inspiration and 99 per cent. perspiration.
361
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won't work.
Thomas A. Edisondisputed·Edison: His Life and Inventions, by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin·1910
Attribution contested
The famous form -- I have not failed, I have just found ten thousand ways that won't work -- has no source in Edison. The earliest record of the remark is this one, in the authorised 1910 biography, and it is a colleague's recollection of a conversation, not Edison writing. Note what changes in the retelling: several thousand becomes ten thousand, and a man cheerfully counting negative results becomes a man defending himself against failure.
362
Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here.
363
The good plan itself, this comes not of its own accord; it is the fruit of “genius” (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all)
Attribution contested
Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains is one of the most quoted sentences in English and Carlyle did not write it. This is what he wrote, and the differences are real: transcendent, not infinite; trouble, not pains; and first of all, which concedes that taking trouble is only where genius starts. The familiar wording appears later in the century in other hands and is usually traced to Jane Ellice Hopkins in 1870. Carlyle got the credit because he got there first with the thought.
364
When I hear some of my young friends complain of want of sympathy and encouragement, I am inclined to think that my naval life was not the least valuable part of my education.
365
The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.
366
Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty game.
367
Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?
368
We have it in our power to begin the world over again
369
This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.
370
A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.
371
By flight alone we cannot overcome, but by endurance and true humility we are made stronger than all our enemies.
372
If we would put some slight stress on ourselves at the beginning, then afterwards we should be able to do all things with ease and joy.
373
No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.
374
I am now sending back to Belle Plain all my wagons for a fresh supply of provisions and ammunition, and purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.
375
My sensations as we approached what I supposed might be 'a field of battle' were anything but agreeable.