fight worth while on this good old earth <br />Isn't the fight for a hoard of gold I <br />It isn't the fight to increase your worth <br />In stocks and bonds and things to hold; <br />It isn't the fight for a higher place, <br />For a meed of power for a little while, <br />Or to finish first in the grinding race <br />And to bask in glory and pomp and style. <br /> <br />The fight worth while is the fight to be <br />Unfettered here by the cords of vice; <br />To set your soul from your body free, <br />To be unswerved by a yellow price; <br />To win the love of your fellowmen, <br />To be a man that they all respect, <br />To lose a fight but to fight again <br />With your shoulders square and your head erect. <br /> <br />This is the fight worth while today; <br />To have ideals and to cling to them, <br />To live your life in your own good way <br />In spite of the scoffers who may condemn; <br />To be willing to fail if the victory <br />Would lower your standard of what is right, <br />To be poor in purse, if you have to be, <br />But rich in spirit. Here is a fight! <br /> <br />To ask no favors from any man, <br />To conquer yourself, and to face the strife <br />With courage born of your own-made plan, <br />To do your best with your term of life; <br />To shirk no task that you find to do, <br />However bitter it seems to be! <br />And at last when the battle of earth is through <br />To be ready to die, is victory.<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-fight-worth-while/
