Who wrote this?

Question

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road your trudging seems 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 bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

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

Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victors cup;
And he learned too late when the night came 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 so far;
So stick to the fight when your hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit!

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose your feelings is to risk rejection.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds
is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken,
because the greatest risk of all is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, he cannot feel,
he cannot change, he cannot grow and he cannot love.
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.
Only the person who risks is truly FREE!

Answer 1

Bernard du Charme

Answer 2

The author of the first four stanzas is unknown, but the last stanza is from "To Risk" by William Arthur Ward.

There is a site that has this poem, entitled "Don't Quit," attributed to a "littleangel2" at deviantart.com, but I don't know if that means he/she wrote it or just submitted it. It is interesting to note that there is a copyright on the page right after the poem, for 2007 by littleangel2. Perhaps he or she really did write it?

Answer 3

Don't Quit by Edgar Albert Guest

Answer 4

Edgar Guest, I would say; although some of it is structured differently it appears to me. It's been years since I've seen that and I do have a collection of Edgar Guest's books. I'll look through them. It's a great piece. Thank you.

Answer 5

Yogi Berra.

Answer 6

This is from an anonymous poet; stolen by many and corny as he*l.

Answer 7

I don't know, but i really needed to read this! Thank you!

Answer 8

You?