“'Tis better to have tried in vain, Sincerely striving for a goal, Than to have lived upon the plain An idle and a timid soul.”

— Edgar A. Guest, "Failures", A Heap o' Livin', 1916, p. 84

About Edgar A. Guest

1881 – 1959

English-born American poet, known as the "People's Poet".

“He started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn't be done, and he did it.”

“Life must be what we make of it.”

“Whate'er my task, be this my creed: I am on earth to fill a need.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”