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 of
waiting
Or being lied upon, 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 think- and not make thoughts you
aim
If you can meet with triumph and Disaster
And treat these imposter the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve
broken
And stoop and build them up with worn-out
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
beginning
And never breathe 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 fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance
run.
Yours is the Earth ad everything that’s
in it.
And – which is more- you’ll be a Man, my
son!
Rudyard Kipling
