Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it. You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. If I am not worth the wooing, I am surely not worth the winning. There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose. Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. On Being a Teacher You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day. Conquer, but don't triumph. Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it -- but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor. It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, 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 short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows 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 know neither victory nor defeat.