Did you know that Miley Cyrus and former Penn State coach/convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky have something in common? Well, they do…and it’s kind of weird. Miley Cyrus’ new tattoo on her arm, a quote from the famous 1910 speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt in France, matches the exact quote Sandusky wrote in letters to his victims. Creepy right? And she’s not even the only one who has used this quote…
Miley Cyrus got a new tattoo as a tribute to Teddy Roosevelt, and, in doing so, she somehow succeeded in stirring up controversy about the recently convicted sex offender, Jerry Sandusky. On July 10, 2012 the 19-year-old singer and actress added to her rapidly growing tattoo collection with some new ink on her arm meant as a nod to the former U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt. Turns out, Miley Cyrus’ tattoo features the exact same quote that Sandusky included in some of the letters he wrote to one of his sex abuse victims, which were released last month. And now we all let out a collective “Ugh.”
Teddy Roosevelt’s Famous Speech Quoted by Sandusky
The infamous quote, “So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat,” was taken from Teddy Roosevelt’s “Citizen and Republic” speech, originally delivered by the former president on April 23, 1910 at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. In Miley’s arm tattoo, the quote seemed cool and inspirational. In light of Sandusky’s letters though, it takes on a bit of a creepy quality, doesn’t it?
Since its initial delivery, the controversial quote has been repeated by a number of political and pop culture figures throughout history, including Richard Nixon during his resignation speech in 1974 and, strangely, Bristol Palin in the new paperback edition of her ghostwritten autobiography, Not Afraid of Life. This begs the question: what’s so special about this Teddy Roosevelt quote that Richard Nixon, Bristol Palin, Jerry Sandusky and Miley Cyrus have all drawn some kind of personal inspiration from it? Well the entire 1910 Roosevelt speech reads as follows:
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.
New Meaning for Miley Cyrus’ Tattoo
So, there you have it. Truthfully, we do feel a little sorry for Miley Cyrus – she hit the tattoo parlor intending to channel an influential former U.S. president with a mature, historical quote. Instead, thanks to our skewed society, she got her name in the same sentence as a convicted sex offender. Makes you kinda second-guess getting that next tattoo, doesn’t it?
