“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 them 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 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
Many are familiar with this quote and it graces many a motivational quote. But did you know that this quote was part of a nearly 9000 word speech given by Roosevelt that he titled Citizenship in a Republic and presented at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1910?
Tucked into this long parade of the former president’s thoughts are some passing comments on a “sound mind” in a “sound body” and on the element never included in this prescription for well-being: a sound character. All of which are of interest to us utilizing this Sharing of Wisdom Blog.
A Sound Body
As a boy, Roosevelt was weak and sickly, stricken frequently with severe asthma. When these attacks were especially bad, his father, Theodore Senior, would take him on carriage rides to try to soothe his labored breathing with fresh air. As Roosevelt ripened into adolescence, his father one day charged him with a mission that changed his life: “You have the mind but you have not the body. You must make your body.”
The young man then established a regimen of exercise which included lifting weights and learning to box and wrestle. Entering Harvard at 16, he continued his conditioning program, and for decades afterward looked for ways to keep physically fit. “I believe in exercise for the body,” he said to his distinguished audience in Paris, “always provided that we keep in mind that physical development is a means and not an end.”
Development of the physical body is not the final outcome, it is but a step in the development of the whole human. We must care for our bodies and we must condition our bodies to do what we ask of them. We must also become aware of the limitations of our bodies. All bodies have their limitations. Limitations change over time. Sometimes conditioning the body may help to change the body’s limitations as it did for Theodore Roosevelt, and sometimes there are limitations to the body and are not overcome by conditioning, permanent injury for example.
A Sound Mind
Roosevelt also touched on the importance of intellect and education. He was homeschooled by his mother, his aunt, and several tutors. In his autobiography, he relates the advantages bestowed by two pre-college trips abroad to Egypt, Syria, the Holy Land, and parts of Europe, all of which broadened his knowledge of the world.
The autobiography reveals Roosevelt’s life-long predilection for reading. He always had a book going and often polished one off in a single day’s time. The scope of that reading was wide, from history to the natural sciences, and Roosevelt possessed the ability to retain much of what he’d consumed, making him one of the greatest bibliophiles to occupy the White House.
Roosevelt noted that as important as the fitness of body and mind were, that “these stand second to certain other things.”
A Sound Character
There is need of a sound body,” Roosevelt told them, “and even more of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character…”. The word character is from Latin indicating "engraved mark," also "symbol or imprint on the soul," referring to that "animating or essential part" of the life energies of the person. Roosevelt defined character as “…the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man’s force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor.”
In making his case, Roosevelt touched on those negative examples of human beings who are lacking in character altogether: the cynic who faces life “with a sneer”; the idler, rich or poor, who doesn’t “earn his own livelihood”; the hypocrite who advocates morality while failing to practice it; the [profiteer] who piles up a fortune “for the acquisition or retention of which he returns no corresponding benefit to the nation as a whole”; the journalists whose “mendacity, slander, sensationalism, inanity, vapid triviality, all are potent factors for the debauchery of the public mind and conscience.”
By this time, Roosevelt would have encountered plenty of people who fit this bill, particularly the corrupt cops he fired when he was a New York City police commissioner and the waffling politicians in Albany and Washington. He also warned his audience about another phenomenon as prevalent then as it is now: the obeisance paid to self-styled “experts” and academics, whom he dubbed “the closet philosopher, the refined and cultured individual who from his library tells how men ought to be governed under ideal conditions.” These statements were made in 1910, 115 years ago.
There has never been a shortage of humans with unsound character. We all have our weaknesses. But as Roosevelt’s father admonishment “you have the mind but you have not the body. You must make your body” resulted in a life mission for the young Roosevelt, so might humans weak, or lacking in character, be admonished “you have the body, you have the mind, you have not the character. You must make your character.”
Life is the forge of character. The word life describes our existence in this world. Our existence in this world is what shape our character. The word style is derived from a word meaning a writing instrument. Thus a lifestyle is the instrument with which you write your existence in this world. Our lifestyle is what writes our character.
We Are All in the Arena
In matters of character, each one of us steps into an arena every day of our lives. Sometimes our situation is dire, dealing with the death of a loved one, a lost job, the betrayal of a friend or even of our own principles. Sometimes, this arena can strain our endurance, but most of the time being in the arena means maintaining the standards of our character as we go through our daily duties and routines, abiding by what Roosevelt calls “the commonplace, every-day qualities and virtues.”
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These are also the qualities of character that bring triumph (spiritual victory)—though not always victory (conquering) — in the arena. But is this soundness of body, soundness of mind, and development of character that contributes to the maturation of our spirit, that animating breath of vigor, that helps us to write our character with our existence.