Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat

Spoken by Theodore Roosevelt 1858–1919 · Governor of New York in 1899; later 26th U.S. President
Verified Free to reuse

Roosevelt said it in “The Strenuous Life,” his address to the Hamilton Club of Chicago on 10 April 1899, collected in The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (The Century Co., 1900). The printed speech reads “than to take rank with those poor spirits” and “the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat” — the circulating version drops a word and smooths the ending.

Last verified 4 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat” Theodore Roosevelt, "The Strenuous Life," speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, 10 April 1899; collected in The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (New York: The Century Co., 1900). Roosevelt's printed text reads: "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." Verified against Project Gutenberg's edition. Via Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Theodore Roosevelt — Governor of New York, then 26th U.S. President. Theme: "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The primary source

Speech
The Strenuous Life
Delivered
Hamilton Club, Chicago — 10 April 1899
Speaker
Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of New York
First collected
The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (New York: The Century Co., 1900)

As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Hamilton Club, Chicago · 10 April 1899

Transcribed from Project Gutenberg’s text of The Strenuous Life ↗. Note the two words the popular version changes: “than to take rank” and “that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Scanned book
The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses at the Internet Archive
Read the full address at Project Gutenberg

How we checked it

  • The line sits in the fourth paragraph of the address printed under the heading “SPEECH BEFORE THE HAMILTON CLUB, CHICAGO, APRIL 10, 1899” in Project Gutenberg’s text of The Strenuous Life ↗, volume 12 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt.
  • The Theodore Roosevelt Center ↗ gives the same wording — “take rank,” “knows not victory nor defeat” — and sources it to The Strenuous Life, Hamilton Club, 1899.
  • The University of Maryland’s Voices of Democracy transcription of the speech ↗ independently carries “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure” and dates the address 10 April 1899.
  • Wikipedia’s article on the speech ↗ confirms Roosevelt delivered it in Chicago on 10 April 1899 as Governor of New York, and that it was published in 1900 in a collection of the same name.
Public domain

Roosevelt delivered the speech in 1899 and it was first collected in The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (New York: The Century Co., 1900) — published in the United States well before 1931, so the text is in the public domain. Project Gutenberg distributes its edition as public domain in the USA, and the Internet Archive catalogues its scan of the Century Co. printing as not in copyright.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The attribution is right. The wording is not.

Nobody else is seriously credited with this sentence — Roosevelt really did say it, and the source is a documented speech. The trouble is that the version everyone repeats has been quietly edited in transit, and the edits have spread into reference works that ought to know better.

“than to rank with those poor spirits” Dropped word

Roosevelt said “than to take rank with those poor spirits.” The verb survives intact in the Project Gutenberg text of The Strenuous Life ↗ and in the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s record ↗.

“that knows neither victory nor defeat” Smoothed ending

The printed speech ends “because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” The tidier “knows neither… nor” construction is a later improvement on Roosevelt, not his phrasing — compare the full text of the address ↗.

Wikiquote Drifted text

Wikiquote lists the line under its sourced section for The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses ↗, but prints “than to rank with … because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat” — three departures at once from the printed speech: the missing “take,” “that grey” for “the gray,” and the reworked ending.

BrainyQuote Unsourced variant

BrainyQuote’s page ↗ inverts the opening to “Far better is it,” cuts the middle with an ellipsis, drops a “much” from “neither enjoy much nor suffer much,” reads “a gray twilight,” and names no speech, book, or date at all.

Roosevelt said it — on 10 April 1899, to the Hamilton Club of Chicago. What he actually said was: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat,” as printed in The Strenuous Life ↗.

Context

Written about nations, borrowed by individuals

Roosevelt was still Governor of New York, two offices short of the presidency, when he stood before Chicago’s Hamilton Club on 10 April 1899 and announced that he wished to preach “not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.” The famous sentence is not the personal-ambition slogan it has become. It arrives in a passage about nations — immediately after “It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history” — and runs straight on into a defence of the Union’s decision to fight in 1861.

That framing is almost always stripped off in circulation. The speech was an expansionist argument by a recent Rough Rider urging an America fresh from war with Spain to accept the costs of empire rather than shrink from them; the line about the gray twilight was his rebuke to a country he thought tempted by comfort, not advice to an individual weighing a career move.

Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history.

Where you have probably met the phrase lately

“Dare mighty things” is the unofficial motto of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and JPL engineers encoded the phrase in binary into the orange-and-white pattern of the Perseverance Mars rover’s parachute, alongside the GPS coordinates of JPL’s headquarters in Pasadena. Wikipedia’s account of the rover ↗ records both the coded phrase and the motto, and notes the phrase is attributed to Roosevelt.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Courage Failure Purpose

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

The Strenuous Life — full textgutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg’s transcription of volume 12 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt. The passage sits in the Hamilton Club address of 10 April 1899.
The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (scan)archive.org

Internet Archive scan of a Century Co. printing of the collection, catalogued as not in copyright — the page images behind the text.
Quotation record for this linetheodorerooseveltcenter.org

The Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University gives the accurate wording and sources it to The Strenuous Life, Hamilton Club, 1899.
“The Strenuous Life,” 1899 — speech textvoicesofdemocracy.umd.edu

The University of Maryland’s Voices of Democracy project hosts the full address, dated 10 April 1899, with scholarly apparatus.
The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addressesen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s page for the book. It files the line under the sourced “The Strenuous Life” section, though its printed wording has drifted.
The Strenuous Life (speech)en.wikipedia.org

Background on the address: delivered in Chicago on 10 April 1899, published in 1900 in a collection of the same name.

The man who actually said it

About the speaker

Theodore Roosevelt

1858–1919 · Governor of New York, then 26th U.S. President

Theodore Roosevelt was a historian, naturalist, Rough Rider colonel and relentless author as well as a politician. He delivered “The Strenuous Life” as Governor of New York, an office he held from 1899 to 1900; he became the 26th U.S. President on 14 September 1901 and served until 1909. His speeches were collected and reprinted constantly in his own lifetime, which is one reason his name still attracts so many quotations — genuine and otherwise.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenuous Life” (speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, April 10, 1899), in The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (New York: The Century Co., 1900), 3–22.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat’?” Last verified 4 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/far-better-it-is-to-dare-mighty-things-to-win-glorious/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied