Ask the Author: Daniel Ruddy
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Daniel Ruddy
Joe, thanks for your question and your interest in my new book!
Teddy Roosevelt lived life with extraordinary zeal and achieved greatness, both for himself and his country--there's a lot to be inspired by! I'm not alone in being fascinated by him; even celebrities not known for spending their days in dusty libraries love him. For example, Miley Cyrus has one of Teddy's quotes tattooed onto her arm, and Lebron James and Justin Timberlake regularly recite the best parts of Teddy's famous "Man in the Arena" speech given at the Sorbonne in 1910; Richard Nixon, of course, did the same, finding solace in Teddy's words when he gave his farewell speech to the White House staff in 1974 after resigning because of the Watergate scandal.
Teddy was the ultimate happy warrior, a political gladiator who fought for righteousness as he saw it. He made mistakes, but his heart was always in the right place. I love his boyish enthusiasm, his over-the-top patriotism, his sensible approach to governance (which was based on listening to the American people and enacting reforms they wanted; despite what his many critics on the Right say about him, he never tried to ram an overbearing, "liberal" ideology down the throats of the public, in part because he never had one to begin with), but most of all I love that he was a fighter and a doer. Indomitable and indefatigable, he never stopped reaching for something better for himself and his country. I have spent 10 years of my life researching his life and ideas, and I never tire of him because of his optimistic, larger-than-life personality, which still vibrates with palpable energy even though he has been dead a century. Read the below words from his "Man in the Arena" speech and it's as though he is sitting next to you, encouraging you to push ahead despite the pain of failure that all of us encounter in life. Inspiring stuff!
"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."
Teddy Roosevelt lived life with extraordinary zeal and achieved greatness, both for himself and his country--there's a lot to be inspired by! I'm not alone in being fascinated by him; even celebrities not known for spending their days in dusty libraries love him. For example, Miley Cyrus has one of Teddy's quotes tattooed onto her arm, and Lebron James and Justin Timberlake regularly recite the best parts of Teddy's famous "Man in the Arena" speech given at the Sorbonne in 1910; Richard Nixon, of course, did the same, finding solace in Teddy's words when he gave his farewell speech to the White House staff in 1974 after resigning because of the Watergate scandal.
Teddy was the ultimate happy warrior, a political gladiator who fought for righteousness as he saw it. He made mistakes, but his heart was always in the right place. I love his boyish enthusiasm, his over-the-top patriotism, his sensible approach to governance (which was based on listening to the American people and enacting reforms they wanted; despite what his many critics on the Right say about him, he never tried to ram an overbearing, "liberal" ideology down the throats of the public, in part because he never had one to begin with), but most of all I love that he was a fighter and a doer. Indomitable and indefatigable, he never stopped reaching for something better for himself and his country. I have spent 10 years of my life researching his life and ideas, and I never tire of him because of his optimistic, larger-than-life personality, which still vibrates with palpable energy even though he has been dead a century. Read the below words from his "Man in the Arena" speech and it's as though he is sitting next to you, encouraging you to push ahead despite the pain of failure that all of us encounter in life. Inspiring stuff!
"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."
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Aug 27, 2016 09:48AM · flag
Aug 27, 2016 06:50PM · flag