ExclusiveTeddy Roosevelt’s 1910 Sorbonne speech is an inspiring tribute to citizenship

Welcome to Epoch Insights with Tiffany. My name is Tiffany Brannon. The name of Theodore Roosevelt stands out as one of the more famous U.S. presidents from the past. I think his most lasting legacy is the teddy bear, the popular stuffed toy which was named after him because of his love of preserving wildlife and national parks. Yet that's a very small part of this great man's legacy. In the Life and Tradition section of the Epoch Times, there's an article called It's Character That Counts Most in the Arena. This article talks a bit about a 1910 speech which President Roosevelt gave at a French university, Sorbonne, but it talks a bit about how the views expressed in this speech reflect his greater character. Roosevelt was a man who above all, character. As a sickly boy, his father encouraged him to take regular exercise to build himself up, and he dedicated himself to exercising greatly, which helped him with his asthma and other childhood ailments. Throughout his life, he believed that physical training was extremely important. However, he believed that it was a means and certainly not an end. Above that was a sound mind. He also believed greatly in education. He himself was homeschooled, but ended up going to university at the age of 16. He entered Harvard after being educated by his mother, his aunt, and several tutors. Throughout his life, long after his school years, he remained an avid reader. In fact, he was one of the most avid readers of all U.S. presidents, and he read books of many different backgrounds, books on science and philosophy, history and literature. And you can see that great love for reading and excellent writing in the speeches he made because he referred to great important works of literature, great prose and poetry, old mythology, as well as historical events in the history of nations, which was very important in his understanding of current politics. But even more than the importance of a sound body and mind, he believed in a sound character. And what is a character? Is an almost intangible essence which refers to the very matter of one's soul, one's spirit, and the kind of person who one is in dealing with others, how you treat people, and what your moral substance is. This speech is very famous, particularly one paragraph from it. Because of that paragraph, it's called the man in the arena speech because he refers to the man in the arena talking about the common person, the average American who is fighting his daily battles of citizenship and life. But the speech is so much more than that. He began the speech by talking about the great history of France and how this particular university was a long-honored institution for learning and great wisdom. He contrasted it with his own nation. And throughout the speech, you see a great and very intelligent comparison of what he considers the two great republics of modern age, the United States of America and France in its post-monarch period. Thus, he says that America can learn from the wisdom of the old world, particularly great nations like France, which were the first and most honored examples of gallantry and establishing the language spoken throughout the world, the lingua franca, meaning the language of the Franks, because their culture and gallantry was so regarded by others. Now, this speech is so long that when I printed it in the smallest font and expanded the margins, it still took five pages. It's 9,000 words long, and it is so eloquent that I'm sure President Roosevelt must have had very careful notes, because clearly it is a great work of prose. To 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. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves, there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day, nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, a fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for those men if they succeed. Well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured and have put forth all their heart and strength. That is but the beginning of how he goes on to describe what a great citizen must be, and his words are equally powerful 115 years later. Repeatedly he mentions the idea that a nation must not be afraid to fight, and I think it's no mere coincidence that he was saying this but four years before France would get involved with the Great War. He says that there are three very important qualities that a nation must have and abilities. We must ever remember that no keenness and subtleness of intellect, no polish, no cleverness in any way make up for the lack of the great solid qualities. Self-restraint, self-mastery, common sense, the power of accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, courage and resolution. These are the qualities which mark a masterful people. Without them no people can control itself or save itself from being controlled from the outside. Roosevelt says that no self-respecting individual, no self-respecting nation, can or ought to submit to wrong. Of course he points out that doesn't mean that war is good, but an unjust war is evil only because it is unjust, not simply because it's war. War is not a good thing but it is necessary and at times and far better than being afraid or unable to defend oneself. There's so much that I could spend hours talking about everything in this speech, but I recommend that you look it up for yourself and see all the great wisdom that he has. The wisdom about the importance of the individual and how the individual must fight for himself, fight for others, strive for the greatness of his own nation above that of the rest of the world, but to be very concerned about others, not a cynic, not merely profiting off of others like journalists who have low moral standards or politicians who use their oration just to sway the public. These are people who should be suspected and removed from polite society. Above all, I think you could summarize the whole speech in that one needs to not be afraid to try, not be afraid to work hard, to fight for a cause, and above all to keep striving for the great ideal on which our country was based. He points out several times that it is ultimately an unattainable ideal, just like any great idea here on this fallen earth, because we are all sinful human beings and no one can achieve perfection, but we sure can keep trying and that's what the man in the arena does. He may fall down but he gets back up and he keeps fighting, just as Roosevelt did throughout his life in public office and in his personal life. Thank you for spending this time with me talking about this very inspiring speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt. If you enjoyed this video, I hope you'll like it, subscribe to the channel, share it with your friends, and leave a comment letting me know what you think about the citizenship in a republic speech. Thank you for watching!