If - Rudyard Kipling

Ive lived by this

since a kid... its a poem, but rather spiritual in nature, at least for me.

If

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!

Yeah. Nice.

Thanks,
B

This poem was very popular in

England when it was first published in the early 20th century, popular in Australia too.

I didnt know

this....

Quote:
"Lines from Kipling's 'If' appear over the player's entrance to Wimbledon's Centre

Court - a poignant reflection of the poem's timeless and inspiring quality"