Worthwhile

It is easy enough to be pleasant, when life flows by like a song,
But the man worthwhile is one who will smile, when everything goes dead wrong;
For the test of the heart is trouble, and it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.

It is easy enough to be prudent, when nothing tempts you to stray,
When, without or within, no voice of sin is luring your soul away;
But it’s only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honor of earth is the one that resists desire.

By the cynic, the sad, the fallen — who had no strength for the strife,
The world’s highway is cumbered today; they make up the sum of life;
But the virtue that conquers passion, and the sorrow that hides in a smile,
It is these that are worth the homage on earth, for we find them but once in a while.

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919)