Note to self: “You wanted this job!”
This is not meant as entertainment for you. It is intended as therapy for me, so read or don’t read. Today is the day for, inter alia, Theodore Roosevelt quotes (and maybe some scripture too):
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” TR
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” Mary Anne Radmacher
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” TR (paraphrasing the best quote below)
“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 and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, 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 he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” TR
“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.” Dale Carnegie
“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do.” Benjamin Franklin
“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.” Abraham Lincoln
“If you have no will to change it, you have no right to criticize it.” Unknown
“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” Aristotle
“Don’t pay any attention to the critics. Don’t even ignore them.” Samuel Goldwyn
“Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic.” J. Sibelius
“Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.” Emmet Fox
“Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked a mile in that man’s shoes.” Elvis Presley
“A critic is someone who never actually goes to the battle, yet who afterwards comes out shooting the wounded.” Tyne Daly
“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.” Abraham Lincoln
“I keep my good health by having a very bad temper, kept under good control.” TR
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” TR
“I would rather go out of politics feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I had acted as I ought not to.” TR
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” TR
“If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs.” TR
“Criticism is easy. Solutions are sometimes more difficult. Be a part of the solution or get out of the way.” Joel Baker
“Remember that I commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God will be with you everwhere you go.” Joshua 1:9 (NCV)
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 NKJV
