Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

  "Life is but an empty dream!"

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

  And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

  And the grave is not its goal;

"Dust thou art, to dust returnest,"

  Was not spoken...

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...

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for hig...

Therefore be at peace with God,

whatever you conceive Him to be,

and whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Defeat, My defeat,

My bold companion,

You shall hear my songs and my cries and silences,

and none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings

and urging of the seas.

And of mountains that burn in the night,

and you alone shall climb my steep and rocky sou...

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 tu...

Defeat, My Defeat

My solitude and aloofness

you are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs,

and sweeter to me than all world-glory.

Defeat, My defeat

My self knowledge and my defiance,

through you I know that I am yet young and swift of foot

and not to be ...

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome disc...

 In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

  Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,--act in the living Present!

  Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

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’...