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 impostors 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 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 beginnings,
  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 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!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
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1 comment:
One of the most necessary poems for this century. All men should read this. Hope you're doing well over there, Nicholls.
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