Success is speaking words of praise,
In cheering other people's ways,
In doing just the best you can,
With every task and every plan,
It's silence when your speech would hurt,
Politeness when your neighbor's curt,
It's deafness when the scandal flows,
And sympathy with others' woes,
It's loyalty when duty calls,
It's courage when disaster falls,
It's patience when the hours are long,
It's found in laughter and in song,
It is not what the world gives me
In honor, praise or gold ;
It is what I do give the world,
So others do unfold.
If by my work through life I can
Another soul unfold,
Then I have done what cannot be
Made good, by praise or gold.
One tiny thought in tiny word
May give a great one birth,
And, if that thought was caused by me, I lived a life of worth.