Mon
Feb 25 2008
03:50 pm
Just A Thought
By: RoaneBooster

I usually get shot at when I dare to post a quote. I don't care today. I saw this, did some searching, could not find anything to disprove the source but I make no guarantees. So here goes...

"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..."

(ATTRIBUTED TO)--Theodore Roosevelt

Topics:

The rest of it:

Submitted by WhitesCreek on February 25, 2008 - 4:11pm.

"... 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, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows 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 neither know victory nor defeat. ...".

Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris
April 23, 1910

So what's your point, RB?

Submitted by WhitesCreek on February 25, 2008 - 4:18pm.

I like the full quote better than the excerpt.

I have absolutely no propblem with the full quote...

Submitted by RoaneBooster on February 25, 2008 - 10:46pm.

... however, as is usually the case when I find a quote I think worth passing on or simply worth thinking about, I find that I do a woefully insufficient job. My profound apologies for my inherent, and apparently insurmountable, inadequacies at posting thoughts or ideas in your forum.

My point? My point was/is to provide something for the readers of RoaneViews to consider. Although it doesn't directly address specific a specific Roane County issue, it does address MANY issues that affect Roane County, in that we all should consider many aspects of life in Roane County. Do I really have to have another point beside that?

If that is insufficient to justify my placing it here for folks to read, then use the editorial power that you own and delete it in its entirety.

Perhaps I fail miserably in however I try to post thoughts here for consideration, yet, by God, as Roosevelt would have had it, I tried. One would think that by now I would have learned. But I'm stupid enough to persist.

RB

Now boys...

Submitted by wylamena on February 25, 2008 - 11:43pm.

Come on RB! It is a great quote. No point needed. WC knows it is a great quote, he one upped it! If he had thought it was crappy, he would have just shot you down.

Kind of makes you think though. Do I want it bad enough to be walked on, talked about and put down? Will I go after it in spite of the hardship encountered when going against the grain? I want to be the muddied, bloodied guy who tries. I never want to be a fence rider! My motto is do something, even if it is wrong.

Teddy might have been on to something.

Wylamena

Well said, Wylamena

Submitted by RoaneBooster on February 26, 2008 - 10:21am.

Very good perspective, IMHO. Thanks for jumping in there.

RB

Oh, Come on!

Submitted by WhitesCreek on February 26, 2008 - 8:40am.

When intellect fails, I guess you resort to name calling.

Booster is a great contributer, and I appreciate him.

Appreciate it, WC.

Submitted by RoaneBooster on February 26, 2008 - 10:33am.

I owe ya one!

RB

I enjoyed the quote RB. My

Submitted by harrimanite on February 25, 2008 - 11:36pm.

I enjoyed the quote RB. My simple thoughts on it: It describes those daring enough to actually try to do something or strive to make a difference rather than those who sit back and just criticize.

That's pretty much what I got out of it, Harrimanite...

Submitted by RoaneBooster on February 26, 2008 - 10:26am.

I think it's often very easy to sit back on the sidelines and watch, then to get critical of how the ones who are trying to do something fail. It's a fact of life that such happens.

It happens in business, it happens in government, it happens in nearly all phases of life.

RB

RB,

Submitted by WhitesCreek on February 26, 2008 - 7:24am.

Good job on getting a quote attribution correct, and I like it.

Teddy Roosevelt was a really smart guy, understanding the value of protecting America's natural heritage and having the wisdom to leave the Republican Party as it headed down the disasterous path that led to the Great Depression.

He lived in great and tragic times. Here's a short bio.

I was in the R & D biz for years and lived with daily failures. The things that worked more than made up for attempts that fell short.

Pretty neat bio...

Submitted by RoaneBooster on February 26, 2008 - 10:32am.

short but had good stuff in it. He was a complex man in many ways, although he is sometimes portrayed in what I opine to be an over-simplified manner.

I'll wager in your business and those daily failures, the actual number of failures was greater than the successes, but the event of having a success and the quality of the success was what made up for it.

Your comment reminds me with some very recent TV ads for the Dyson vacuum cleaners. The inventor talks specifically about how many thousands of times he failed with this aspect or the other of the machine until they got it right. He praised the failures as always being educational. His is the kind of attitude I like whether it's found in inventors, businessmen, legislators, etc.

RB

Failures way outnumber

Submitted by WhitesCreek on February 26, 2008 - 10:50am.

Failures way outnumber successes, but only if you discount the things you learn each time.

Actually, I figured out that instead of calling something a "failure" I could call it a "prototype".

We had a hand made sign in R&D that said, "Well, that didn't work". Edison supposedly had several hundred "prototype" light bulbs on the way to the tungsten filament.

We also had a fancy "Area 51" sign.

That's almost EXACTLY the way...

Submitted by RoaneBooster on February 26, 2008 - 11:38am.

... Dyson explained it on his ads. Next time I have to buy a vacuum cleaner, damned if I won't buy one of his just because of his approach... but anyway... What you said about not calling it a failure, but a prototype, is precisely the kind of reasoning Dyson used.

And the proof is in the pudding... you DID get your R&D ideas to FLOAT! :-) (pun intended)

RB

Groan...

Submitted by WhitesCreek on February 26, 2008 - 1:52pm.

Most of them...not all.

I liked...

Submitted by wylamena on February 27, 2008 - 11:55pm.

I liked Teddy Roosevelt because he was a Pit Bull owner! Then I learned that he was also pretty cool himself.

Wylamena

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