People who blame the targets of assault, who silence us, who shame us, who exclude us …
To all those who do that to me and others every fucking day of the year …
– Lubyanka,
https://fetlife.com/users/196199/posts/1007365#post_comment_3273548
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 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 up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error or shortcoming,
but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions,
who spends himself for 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 knew neither victory nor defeat.
“Citizenship in a Republic”, Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
– Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States of America
http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/quotes.htm
I reach out, wanting you to tear me open.
– Rumi
Don’t dwell on those who let you down,
Cherish those who hold you up.
– Mark Pothier