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1849–1916

JUST TO BE GOOD

James Whitcomb Riley

Just to be good — This is enough — enough! O we who find sin's billows wild and rough, Do we not feel how more than any gold

Would be the blameless life we led of old While yet our lips knew but a mother's kiss? Ah! though we miss All else but this,

To be good is enough! It is enough — Enough — just to be good! To lift our hearts where they are understood;

To let the thirst for worldly power and place Go unappeased; to smile back in God's face With the glad lips our mothers used to kiss. Ah! though we miss

All else but this, To be good is enough!

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JUST TO BE GOOD · James Whitcomb Riley · Poetry Cove