Over the years, I have collected many historical quotes about living life boldly. Probably my favorite is from Jonathan Swift who said “may you live every day of your life.” But, others have said similar ideas, especially in connection with being bold. There is a favorite Mark Twain quote on this point, though scholars don’t think Twain ever wrote it or said it. Still, through the power of the Internet, it’s everywhere attributed to him. He supposedly said “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Well, if he didn’t say it, its still a good point. Are you going to look back 20 year from now sad, disappointed? Certianly there isn’t anything wrong with appropriate caution–some people will look back 20 seconds after a rash decision wishing they had stayed in the harbor–but for many, they simply never roll the dice. They never go for it.
Theodore Roosevelt is probably my third or fourth favorite President, though towards the end of his life, he seemed to move in directions that are hard for me to follow. In 1913, after losing the 1912 election, he took time to publish An Autobiography. In there, he expresses much more eloquently what the supposed Twain quote was aiming at. Don’t fear to live.
But life is a great adventure, and the worst of all fears is the fear of living. There are many forms of success, many forms of triumph. But there is no other success that in any shape or way approaches that which is open to most of the many, many men and women who have the right ideals. These are the men and the women who see that it is the intimate and homely things that count most. They are the men and women who have the courage to strive for the happiness which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice, and only to those whose joy in life springs in part from power of work and sense of duty.