A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities — all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain think, of superiority, but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part manfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affectation of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves their own weakness.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)

Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
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