when things go wrong...

...as they sometimes will, when the road you're trudging seemed all uphill...
when the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile but you have to sigh
when care is pressing you down a but, rest if you must
but DON'T YOU QUIT..."
--from the poem 'Don't Quit'

I had always been thankful of the day I accidentally found this poem written in an old piece of paper tucked in an ancient looking book covered with dust.
The poem reads this way:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt -
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

...If all else fail, this poem has never failed to keep me going. It has always been my source of strength. The words that never fails to help me stand when I am about to collapse. When things seemed so rough and I suddenly feel like quitting, the lines of the poem would suddenly pop in my mind and everything seemed to make sense all of a sudden.

To whoever wrote this poem and whoever tucked a copy of it in that dusty old book, Thank you, the simple lines makes a lot of difference in my life.