"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 canthink- and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters 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 you 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 that 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 foe nor loving friend can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none to much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty secounds' worth of distence run,
Yours is the earth and everything in it
And which is more you'll be a man, my son"
RUDYARD KIPLING