Desiderata
Max Ehrmann,
1927
Go
placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there
may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on
good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, they too have
their story.
Avoid
loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If
you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep
interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession
in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business
affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind
you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be
yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical
about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it
is perennial as the grass.
Take
kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the
things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden
misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears
are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You
are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore
be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever
your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep
peace with your soul.
With
all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful
world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
______________
Note:
Although often said to have been found in Old St. Paul's Church,
Baltimore, and dated 1692, this poem was written by attorney and
businessman Max Ehrmann (1872-1945) of Terre Haute, Indiana, in
1927. His widow, Bertha K. Ehrmann, renewed the original copyright
in 1954.
According
to a 1977 story by Washington Post reporter Barbara J. Katz,
Rev. Frederick Ward Kates, rector of Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore
in the late 1950s, mimeographed an unsigned copy of this and numerous
other inspirational poems to distribute to worshippers. The copies
were printed on the church's letterhead, which read "Old Saint Paul's
Church, Baltimore, A.D. 1692," the year the church was founded.
Presumably some of the copies were carried from the church and eventually
became widely circulated, with the significance of the original
letterhead becoming obscured. In the 1960s, America's "flower children"
popularized the poem they thought was a centuries-old message of
peace and love. Both the poem's popularity and the confusion surrounding
its origin persist.
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