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 allowances for their doubting too,

If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting,

orbeing 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 these 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 all on one

turn of pitch and toss, and lose,

and begin again at your beginnings,

and never breathe a word about your loss,

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew,

to serve you long after they are gone,

and so hold on when there is nothing in you,

except the will that 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 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 !

(or a woman/daughter)