If you can speak and make not speech your lies,
Or gifted with sight, you ensnare not your eyes,
If you can hear and not by listening be corrupt,
Or being generous, you fear not to go bankrupt,
If you can rise when others choose to go down,
Or being truthful, prefer to be called a clown,
If you can learn and not make knowledge a curse,
Or being curious, make no vain pursuit your boss;

If you can try and not in trying found wanting,
Or faced with failure, you stop not to keep living,
If you can love and not for hurt resort to hate,
Or being betrayed, choose not to curse your fate,
If you can ask and not by getting be doomed,
Or when at want, not given to a hopeless mood,
If you can soar higher and remain humble still,
Or terribly tempted, lose not your precious...