Explore "The Winners" by Rudyard Kipling on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
What is the moral? Who rides may read. / When the night is thick and the tracks are blind / A friend at a pinch is a friend indeed, / But a fool to wait for the laggard behind. / Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, / He travels the fastest who travels alone.
White hands cling to the tightened rein, / Slipping the spur from the booted heel, / Tenderest voices cry 'Turn again,' / Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel, / High hopes faint on a warm hearth stone -- / He travels the fastest who travels alone.
One may fall but he falls by himself -- / Falls by himself with himself to blame, / One may attain and to him is pelf, / Loot of the city in Gold or Fame. / Plunder of earth shall be all his own / Who travels the fastest and travels alone.
Wherefore the more ye be holpen and stayed, / Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil, / Sing the heretical song I have made -- / His be the labour and yours be the spoil, / Win by his aid and the aid disown -- / He travels the fastest who travels alone!