Rudyard Kipling

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 to;

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 away 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 aims,

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 worn-out 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 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
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the will to say 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 or 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!