The claim, as it circulates · Checked 2026-10-20
“The Man in the Arena”: Theodore Roosevelt’s exact words
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…”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1858–1919
SAID ITShort answer · Said itYes. Roosevelt said it at the Sorbonne in Paris on 23 April 1910, in the speech “Citizenship in a Republic.” The usual versions cut the passage short. The full text is below.
The receipt: primary sourceNo. 001
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.
- Work
- “Citizenship in a Republic” (speech)
- Date
- 23 April 1910
- Place
- The Sorbonne, Paris
- Source
- Citizenship in a Republic — Wikisource ↗
- Checked
- 2026-10-20 · matched against the cached primary text
- Most posters stop at “dust and sweat and blood.” The sentence keeps going and lands on “cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
- Roosevelt gave the speech in English, so the wording is his own and nothing was translated.
Cite-safe version
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” — Theodore Roosevelt, “Citizenship in a Republic,” the Sorbonne, Paris, 23 April 1910