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Kipling's "If—": A Guide to Resilience

The poem outlines qualities of perseverance and strength of character. It describes facing adversity with composure, maintaining integrity when criticized or lied about, and treating both success and failure as temporary states. It advises dreaming but not being ruled by dreams, thinking but not living for thoughts alone. Even when plans fail, one should rebuild with what remains. It counsels staking all on a single chance but starting over if losing, and continuing on through sheer force of will when nothing else drives you. With virtue intact among crowds or kings, counting friends but not too much, each moment can be filled with purpose and achievement, making you a true man.

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251 views1 page

Kipling's "If—": A Guide to Resilience

The poem outlines qualities of perseverance and strength of character. It describes facing adversity with composure, maintaining integrity when criticized or lied about, and treating both success and failure as temporary states. It advises dreaming but not being ruled by dreams, thinking but not living for thoughts alone. Even when plans fail, one should rebuild with what remains. It counsels staking all on a single chance but starting over if losing, and continuing on through sheer force of will when nothing else drives you. With virtue intact among crowds or kings, counting friends but not too much, each moment can be filled with purpose and achievement, making you a true man.

Uploaded by

Marad3
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Kipling

If
By Rudyard Kipling
(Brother Square-ToesRewards and Fairies)
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, dont deal in lies,
Or being hated, dont give way to hating,
And yet dont look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dreamand not make dreams your master;
If you can thinkand not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth youve 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 which says to them: Hold on!

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kingsnor 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 thats in it,
Andwhich is moreyoull be a Man, my son!
Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

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