Let me today do something that will take
A little sadness from the world's vast store,
And may I be so favored as to make
Of joy's too scanty sum a little more.
Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed
Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend.
Nor would I pass unseeing worthy need,
Or sin by silence when I should defend.
However meager be my worldly wealth,
Let me give something that shall aid my kind
A word of courage, or a thought of health
Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.
Let me tonight look back across the span
Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say
Because of some good act to beast or man "
The world is better that I lived today."
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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