If
By Rudyard Kipling
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 - not 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!<
![]()