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 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
wornout 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 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!