Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.
Interpretation
This quote encourages taking action and learning from failure instead of avoiding risks.
Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes the importance of taking action and experimenting with different methods in the pursuit of goals. He advocates for acknowledging failures openly and learning from them, rather than being deterred or paralyzed by the fear of failure. The call to 'try something' highlights the necessity of being proactive and engaged in oneβs pursuits, suggesting that taking risks is an essential part of success.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage students to embrace challenges.
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. ... Let them tell that to the Marines!
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
But you might as well bid a man struggling in the water, rest within arm's length of the shore! I must reach it first, and then I'll rest.
In life you need either inspiration or desperation.
The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today...There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better.
I promise I shall never give up, and that I'll die yelling and laughing, and that until then I'll rush around this world I insist is holy and pull at everyone's lapel and make them confess to me and to all.
There are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
Seize today and put as little trust as you can in tomorrow.
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