If—

Stanza I

¹If you can keep your head when all about you

²Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

³If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

⁴But make allowance for their doubting too;

⁵If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

⁶Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

⁷Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

⁸And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

Stanza II

⁹If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;

¹⁰If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;

¹¹If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

¹²And treat those two impostors just the same;

¹³If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

¹⁴Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

¹⁵Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

¹⁶And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

Stanza III

¹⁷If you can make one heap of all your winnings

¹⁸And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

¹⁹And lose, and start again at your beginnings

²⁰And never breathe a word about your loss;

²¹If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

²²To serve your turn long after they are gone,

²³And so hold on when there is nothing in you

²⁴Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

Stanza IV

²⁵If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

²⁶Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,

²⁷If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

²⁸If all men count with you, but none too much;

²⁹If you can fill the unforgiving minute

³⁰With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

³¹Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

³²And — which is more — you'll be a Man, my son!