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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 all 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 |