Out of the night that covers me, / Black as the pit from pole to pole, / I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul.
These are the first four lines of Invictus, which Henley wrote in 1875 while recovering in hospital after surgery on his tubercular foot. The poem was published in 1888 in his first volume, A Book of Verses.
I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance / I have not winced nor cried aloud. / Under the bludgeonings of chance / My head is bloody, but unbowed.
So be my passing! / My task accomplished and the long day done, / My wages taken, and in my heart / Some late lark singing,
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, / The Man’s the gowd for a’ that.