Gov. Mark Dayton Thursday, asked about Michele Bachmann's future now that she has dropped out of the race for president, was unwilling to criticize her in defeat and showed his ability to quote literature from memory.

"I honor and respect the willingness of people to come forward," Dayton said, noting that he disagreed with her on almost all things.

He then went on to quote, from memory, the President John Kennedy speech, in which speech writer Ted Sorensen, rewrote President Teddy Roosevelt's speech:

"The credit belongs to the man (or woman) who is, you know, actually in the battle, whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood and understands the perils of the devotions and spends himself...in a worthy cause, who if he succeeds, knows the thrills of high achievement, who if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so his place will never be with those cold and timid souls, who know neither victory or defeat," he said.

Dayton got pretty close.

The original quote from the Roosevelt speech:

"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."

The Kennedy/Sorensen rewrite:

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena - whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions - and spends himself in a worthy cause - who at best if he wins knows the thrills of high achievement - and if he fails at least fails while daring greatly - so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."