My Task

To be honest, to be kind;
To earn a little and to spend a little less;
To make upon
The whole a family happier for his presence;
To renounce when that shall be necessary And not to be embittered;
To keep a few friends, But those without capitulation;
Above all, on the same grim conditions,
To keep friends with himself -
Here is a task
For all that man has of fortitude and delicacy.

by Robert Louis Stevenson