April 23rd. In the chambers of a regal old university in the Latin Quarter of Paris, former-president Theodore Roosevelt speaks to an enraptured crowd. Despite the Old-World majesty of the venue, the subject of the lecture is distinctly furiously modern, outlining what it means to be a participant in a strange experiment called “democracy.”

While his “Citizenship in a Republic” address touched on everything from labor to leisure, inequality to innovation, one section of his nearly 9,000-word speech was so powerful and profound as to stand out above all else. Two simple sentences explaining why all of us need to aspire to be the “man in the arena.”

Man in the Arena quote:
“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.”

- Kennedy quoted Man in the Arena in 1961 while visiting Roosevelt's hometown.

Read Primer's full guide on How to Finally Light the Fire That Will Free Yourself from Criticism & Failure: https://www.primermagazine.com/2020/live/man-in-the-arena

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Original music by Andrew Snavely