If you can keep your head when all
Around you lose it and you make a fault;
If you're able to trust yourself when all
Doubt it, but also to take account of the doubt;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, do not deal in lies,
Or being hated, do not give way to hating,
And yet do not 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 way;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to, 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 heads and tails,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And do not say a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are exhausted,
And so hold on when you can do nothing else
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on."
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings without losing contact with people,
If it can not hurt you or the enemy's closest friend,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
Giving value to each minute that passes,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
(Rudyard Kipling)
