Worthwhile

It's easy enough to be pleasant,  
When life flows by like a song,  
But the man worthwhile is the 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 the earth  
Is the smile that shines through the tears.  
  
It's 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 on 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 to-day;  
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 once in a while.  

Ella Wheeler Wilcox