If You Haven't Read This Poem It's Worth A Read, If You Have It's Worth A Second Or Third Reading

     IF

     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---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!

     Rudyard Kipling