[Theodore Roosevelt by Theodore Roosevelt]@TWC D-Link bookTheodore Roosevelt CHAPTER II 59/64
In translating the title the lady rendered it in Italian as _Vigor di Vita_.
I thought this translation a great improvement on the original, and have always wished that I had myself used "The Vigor of Life" as a heading to indicate what I was trying to preach, instead of the heading I actually did use. There are two kinds of success, or rather two kinds of ability displayed in the achievement of success.
There is, first, the success either in big things or small things which comes to the man who has in him the natural power to do what no one else can do, and what no amount of training, no perseverance or will power, will enable any ordinary man to do.
This success, of course, like every other kind of success, may be on a very big scale or on a small scale.
The quality which the man possesses may be that which enables him to run a hundred yards in nine and three-fifths seconds, or to play ten separate games of chess at the same time blindfolded, or to add five columns of figures at once without effort, or to write the "Ode to a Grecian Urn," or to deliver the Gettysburg speech, or to show the ability of Frederick at Leuthen or Nelson at Trafalgar.
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