“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 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 up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
I use to work for a great lawyer by the name of John Howie. I tried several cases with John. I learned from John to not let the fear of losing a trial prevent me from trying any case that I thought deserved to be tried. More than once after trying and losing a difficult case, John would always pick me up and encourage me to get back in the arena. Once he gave this quote from Theodore Roosevelt. I had never heard it before. Though John died much too young, when I get worried about trying a case or how to deal with some difficult situation, I think about John. Truly he was the man in the arena.
