Yet, if the uncouth borderers were as brutal as the highly polished Greeks, they were more manly; defeat was not necessarily considered disgrace, a man often fighting when he was certain to be beaten, while the onlookers neither hooted nor pelted the conquered.
Roosevelt reflects on the manliness and honor in the brutal contests of early American borderers compared to the Greeks.
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Character must show itself in the man's performance both of the duty he owes himself and of the duty he owes the State.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.
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