Best Advice for Fathers: If by Kipling

Happy Father’s Day.

If you’re looking for advice on how to be a man of integrity, look no further than today’s “guest” post.

Actually, my guest author died many years ago. His works are now in public domain.

I’m quoting one of my favorite poems, If by Rudyard Kipling.

This inspirational poem was first published in 1909 in his collection, Rewards and Fairies.

The poem has been quoted often, and some of the lines are inscribed on buildings, like over the players’ entrance at Wimbledon.

Lines from it often appear in pop culture today, like a password used in the 2015 movie, Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, a song performed by Joni Mitchell on her 2007 album Shine, a video tribute to Boston Red Sox retiring player David Ortiz, and so many more.

If is inspirational—one might say it’s rules for being a grown-up or a blueprint for integrity.

If by 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 all 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!

Takeaway Truth

If and other works by Kipling are in public domain and can be found in Public Domain Poetry.