Poems
A Search for Truth and Wisdom
IF
by Lewis Carroll
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 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 made 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 winning 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!
I Can
by David Moe
If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don't. If you like to win, but you think you can't It's almost certain you won't. If you think you'll lose, you're lost for out of the world we find Success begins with a fellow's will. It's all in the state of the mind. If you think you are outclassed, you are. You've got to think high to rise. You're got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win the a prize. Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man But sooner or later the man who wins Is the man who thinks he can.
The Power of Commitment
W. N. Murray 1951
Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definately commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occured. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can -- begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."