Evel Knievel
(1938 – 2007)
“There is no king, no prince, no president, no athlete … nobody that has lived a better life than me.”
I have an autographed picture of Evel making his famous jump at Wembley Stadium hanging in my office. What he symbolizes to me was best said in a famous quote from Teddy Roosevelt.
Teddy Roosevelt – To the Man in the Arena
“It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled 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 knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows 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 know neither victory nor defeat.”
Happy Landings Evel!
Gizmodo had a nice recap you can read here.
Greg – Great quote. Reminds me of something from the autobiography of Malcom X. He had a quote about how children who are not yet scared of failure try to walk, but adults who are scared, don’t always venture out and try. Also a great poem by Dylan Thomas called (I think) Being But Men touches on the same theme. Here is to being child-like (taking risks and “tasting” victory or defeat) in 2008!
Here’s another favorite about challenging yourself…
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are HARD, because THAT GOAL will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because THAT CHALLENGE is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
JFK, 9/12/62
– Can’t you just hear him with New England accent saying “because they are HAARRRD”
gr