If-
Rudyard Kipling
1865 to 1936
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If you can keep your head when all about
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk wise:
If you can dream - and not make your master;
If you can think - and not thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or the things you gave your life to, broken,
And and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you make one heap of all your winnings
And risk on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in
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,
all men count with you, but none too much;
you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll a Man, my son!