There are two kinds of people alive today,
Just two kinds of people, two only, I say.
Not the good and the bad, for its’ well understood
The good are half bad, and the bad are half good.
Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health……
No the two kind of people on earth that I mean
Are the people who LIFT and the people who LEAN!
Wherever you go you will find the world’s masses
Are always divided in just these two classes.
And strangely enough, you will find that there are rifts:
There are twenty-plus LEANERS for each one who LIFTS.
In which class are you? Are you easing the load
Of the world-changing LIFTERS who pave their own road!
Or are you a LEANER who lets others bear
Your portion of worry and labor and care!
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox –
Which one are you?