If If
you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it
on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance
for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way
to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If
you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not
make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And
treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth
you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the
things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout
tools; If
you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word
about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To
serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing
in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"; If
you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose
the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If
all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving
minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth
and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Rudyard
Kipling |