WHAT man may learn, what man may do, <br />Of right or wrong of false or true, <br />While, skipper-like, his course he steers <br />Through nine and twenty mingled years, <br />Half misconceived and half forgot, <br />So much I know and practise not. <br /> <br />Old are the words of wisdom, old <br />The counsels of the wise and bold: <br />To close the ears, to check the tongue, <br />To keep the pining spirit young; <br />To act the right, to say the true, <br />And to be kind whate'er you do. <br /> <br />Thus we across the modern stage <br />Follow the wise of every age; <br />And, as oaks grow and rivers run <br />Unchanged in the unchanging sun, <br />So the eternal march of man <br />Goes forth on an eternal plan.<br /><br />Robert Louis Stevenson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/what-man-may-learn-what-man-may-do/
