A Poem for Young Men   

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but allow for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about but don't lie,

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 the same,

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and build 'em up; 

If you can force your heart and nerve to serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you, except the Will which says '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 (1865-1936)

Some words omited for space