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 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
-- 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!
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