Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

If

Rudyard Kipling
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 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 impostors 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 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! 


Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was born in India, educated in England, and in 1882 returned to India as a journalist. He was a prolific writer and became the writer and poet most closely associated with the British Empire and the common British colonial soldier, whom he glorified in many of his works.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In 1892, Kipling married Caroline Balestier and settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he wrote The Jungle Book and “Gunga Din.” Kipling lost his beloved daughter Josephine when she was a young girl and after her death the family moved back to England. His son John was killed in the First World War.

Kipling’s best known poetry is collected in Barrack Room Ballads (1892). His Jungle Book and Just So Stories remain classics of children’s literature. Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Secrets of Resilience in May's Unforgettable Memoir

Rudyard Kipling
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 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 impostors 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 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! 


Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was born in India, educated in England, and in 1882 returned to India as a journalist. He was a prolific writer and became the writer and poet most closely associated with the British Empire and the common British colonial soldier, whom he glorified in many of his works.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In 1892, Kipling married Caroline Balestier and settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he wrote The Jungle Book and “Gunga Din.” Kipling lost his beloved daughter Josephine when she was a young girl and after her death the family moved back to England. His son John was killed in the First World War.

Kipling’s best known poetry is collected in Barrack Room Ballads (1892). His Jungle Book and Just So Stories remain classics of children’s literature. Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego beaches not that nice to dogs

Bacteria and seawater itself not that great
Next Article

Too $hort & DJ Symphony, Peppermint Beach Club, Holidays at the Zoo

Events December 19-December 21, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader