- 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 dount you

but make allowence for their dounting too

IF you can wait and not be tired by waiting

or being lied dont deal in lies

OR being hated dont give away to hating

and get dont look too good nor talk too wise

IF you can bear and hear the truth you've spoken

twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools

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

IF neither toes nor loving friends can hurt you

if all men count with you but none too much

IF you can fill the unforgiving min

with sixty seconds' worth of distance run

YOUR'S is the earth and everything that's in it

and - whenis more - you'll be a man / woman