"IF" by Rudyard Kipling
written by Allan on January 26, 2009
My parents made me read this when I was 12 and it's always stuck with me. When my son is old enough I'll share it with him. No matter how many times I read it something new always jumps out at me.
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 allowance for their doubting too;
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 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 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 wornout 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 breath 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 which 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 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!
Do you have a favorite quote or poem or passage?
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Allan loves his family more than breathing. He lives in Panama City, Florida & grew up washing cars at his family's car washes. Oh and Allan hasn't worn underwear since 2004.
7 Comments
Well this was a rather auspicious post for me. I was able to read the first two stanzas at work before my boss walked up but I was not able to return to it before leaving the office. I remember reading this poem several years ago though. After work I had an appointment with a friend who gave me a stack of articles he thought I might find interesting. I set it aside without looking at it as we continued to talk. I began to tell him about a lucid dream I had a few nights ago and we volleyed increasingly perspicacious comments until we came to a point where his eyes lit up and he grabbed back his stack of papers. He began to read “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…”. He had printed this poem out for me before I arrived today. The correlation to my dream was uncanny. I got a chill and said “oh my gosh I read this today”. Well, I guess I was supposed to! Great post!
Its awesome! Thanks for sharing. I read this somewhere and since then I have been positive in my thoughts and speech…
“Every fool can complaint, criticize or condemn, and most fools do.”
My fav quote is
Desire Creates The Power by raymond holliwell
trisha
Excellent. I had never read that poem before. Thanks.
When you asked for a favorite quote or poem or passage, the first thing I thought of was Thoreau… that man was truly enlightened and a lot of his writings are simply awesome. I like this passage in particular; it is from Autumnal Tints…
“Let your walks now be a little more adventurous; ascend the hills. If, about the last of October, you ascend any hill in the outskirts of our town, and probably of yours, and look over the forest, you may see——well, what I have endeavored to describe. All this you surely will see, and much more, if you are prepared to see it,—if you look for it. Otherwise, regular and universal as this phenomenon is, whether you stand on the hill-top or in the hollow, you will think for threescore years and ten that all the wood is, at this season, sear and brown. Objects are concealed from our view, not so much because they are out of the course of our visual ray as because we do not bring our minds and eyes to bear on them; for there is no power to see in the eye itself, any more than in any other jelly. We do not realize how far and widely, or how near and narrowly, we are to look. The greater part of the phenomena of Nature are for this reason concealed from us all our lives. The gardener sees only the gardener’s garden. Here, too, as in political economy, the supply answers to the demand. Nature does not cast pearls before swine. There is just as much beauty visible to us in the landscape as we are prepared to appreciate,—not a grain more. The actual objects which one man will see from a particular hill-top are just as different from those which another will see as the beholders are different. The scarlet oak must, in a sense, be in your eye when you go forth. We cannot see anything until we are possessed with the idea of it, take it into our heads,—and then we can hardly see anything else.”
Wow, my dad loves that poem and had me learn it when I was a wee lad. Very powerful and a timeless classic.
I had never heard of that poem before just now reading it. I’m reread it a couple more times.
I’m a big fan of short, powerful quotes. I really enjoyed reading the book “Into the Wild” – the book the movie was based on. There was a quote from the book – I think they used in the movie – that I really love. It goes, “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.”
I can relate to that quote.
Every challenge along the way
With courage I can face
I will battle everyday
To claim my rightful place
- Ash Ketchem