Roosevelt isn't simply saying that failure beats stagnation—he's drawing a moral distinction between the two. There's something almost sharp in that word "worse," suggesting that a life untouched by genuine risk carries its own peculiar shame, one that might sting longer than any defeat. When a young person turns down a job opportunity because they fear they won't be perfect at it, they inherit that quiet regret Roosevelt warns against, the knowledge that caution masqueraded as wisdom. The genius here is recognizing that some forms of failure are actually evidence of a life well-spent, while some forms of safety are their own kind of loss.