盡管在電影里，曼德拉總統(tǒng)給了南非橄欖球國家隊(duì)隊(duì)長Invictus這首詩，但在現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中，曼德拉給他的，卻是西奧多·羅斯福（Theodore Roosevelt）于1910年在索爾本發(fā)表的著名的演講《競技場(chǎng)上的人》The Man in the Arena中的選段，原文如下：

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 them 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, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in 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 fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.