Desiderata

By Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become bitter or vain, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

This text follows “Desiderata” as printed in The Poems of Max Ehrmann (Bruce Humphries, 1948), taken from a reprint of that edition held in the Vigo County Public Library’s archives in Terre Haute and digitized by the Internet Archive.

The 1948 book prints it as a single paragraph of prose. We have divided it into paragraphs by topic to make it easier to read, without changing any of its words. References to sentence numbers on this page count its 24 sentences in order.

Popular versions often break it into short stanzas, and many older posters carry the false date of 1692.

“Desiderata” is a prose poem by Max Ehrmann, a lawyer, businessman, and writer from Terre Haute, Indiana. Ehrmann wrote it in 1927 and registered a copyright that year. He sent it to friends as a Christmas greeting in 1933, and it was collected in The Poems of Max Ehrmann (Bruce Humphries, 1948), three years after his death. In 24 sentences, it offers quiet advice for living well, and since the 1960s, it has been one of the most widely reproduced inspirational texts in English, often under the false claim that it was found in a Baltimore church in 1692.

Our reading is that “Desiderata” is less a list of rules than a portrait of balance. Almost every piece of advice comes with its own counterweight: be on good terms with everyone, but without surrender; beware of trickery, but don’t let it blind you to virtue; keep a wholesome discipline, but be gentle with yourself. Ehrmann’s ideal is not perfection but a steady middle way, and the poem’s calm tone is how it teaches that balance.

ON THIS PAGE
Summary · Background · Analysis and Themes · Form and Technique · Notable Lines · Themes · FAQ
Glossary · In Popular Culture · Related Poems

Summary

The poem opens with its famous instruction: move calmly through the noise and hurry of life, and remember the peace that silence can hold. It then turns to other people. The reader should get along with everyone as far as possible without giving up their own ground, speak honestly, listen even to dull people, and steer clear of loud and aggressive ones.

Next comes advice about the self and work. Comparing yourself with others breeds bitterness or vanity, so the speaker urges pleasure in your own achievements and interest in your own career, however humble. Be careful in business, since the world is full of trickery, but remember that many people strive for high ideals.

The second half grows more personal. Be yourself, don’t fake affection, and don’t be cynical about love. Accept growing older, build inner strength, and don’t torment yourself with dark imaginings.

Finally, the poem reminds the reader that they are a child of the universe with a right to be here. It asks them to be at peace with God, whatever they conceive Him to be, and it ends by insisting that, for all its sham and broken dreams, this is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful, it says, and strive to be happy.

Background

Max Ehrmann was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on September 26, 1872. He graduated from DePauw University in 1894, and he then studied law and philosophy at Harvard.

Back in Terre Haute, he practiced law and served for two years as deputy state’s attorney for Vigo County. He later worked in his family’s businesses, then left business at about the age of 40 to write. Apart from “Desiderata,” his best-known work is the prose poem “A Prayer,” published in A Prayer and Other Selections (1906).

Ehrmann wrote “Desiderata” in 1927, when he was in his mid-50s, and registered a copyright for it that year. In December 1933, he sent it to friends as part of a Christmas greeting.

He died in Terre Haute on September 9, 1945. Three years later, his widow, Bertha K. Ehrmann, included “Desiderata” in The Poems of Max Ehrmann.

The poem’s real fame began after his death. In the late 1950s, the Reverend Frederick Kates, rector of Old Saint Paul’s Church in Baltimore, included it in devotional material for his congregation. The sheets carried the church’s name and its founding year, 1692, and as copies spread, many readers took that date as the year the poem was written.

By the 1960s and 1970s, posters often presented it as an anonymous 17th-century text. After Adlai Stevenson died in 1965, a copy was reportedly found near his bed, and he is said to have planned to use it on his Christmas cards.

The copyright became the subject of a lawsuit. In Bell v. Combined Registry Co. (1975), a federal court in Illinois ruled that the copyright had been lost. The court found that Ehrmann had allowed the psychiatrist Merrill Moore to hand out copies in the early 1940s, which it concluded carried no copyright notice, and that Ehrmann had also abandoned the copyright. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in 1976.

Moore wrote that he had given away about a thousand copies, most of them while he was in civilian practice in Boston, and more reached servicemen during World War II. Today, “Desiderata” is in the public domain in the United States.

Analysis and Themes

On the surface, “Desiderata” is a list of good advice. What keeps it from sounding like a self-help pamphlet is its voice, its habit of balancing every instruction, and its sudden widening of scale near the end.

A Calm Voice in a Noisy World

The opening sentence sets the tone of the whole poem. The world is “noise” and “haste,” and the reader is asked not to escape it but to move through it “placidly,” carrying silence inside. Ehrmann wrote in the late 1920s, a decade often remembered for its speed and noise, and the poem’s first concern is how to stay calm in the middle of it.

The speaker never raises their voice. There are no exclamation marks, and even the warnings are mild: loud people are not wicked, only “vexatious to the spirit.” The poem practices the calm it recommends.

Advice in Balance

Nearly every piece of advice in the poem is paired with a limit. The reader should be on good terms with everyone, but “without surrender.” They should be cautious in business, but not blind to virtue. They should keep “a wholesome discipline,” but be gentle with themselves.

This pattern of counterweights is the poem’s real teaching. Ehrmann distrusts extremes, whether they are aggressive pride, bitter comparison, cynicism, or self-punishment, and he keeps steering the reader toward the middle.

From Self to Universe

For most of its length, the poem stays at the level of daily life: conversation, work, love, and aging. Then, in the 18th sentence, the scale opens. The reader is “a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars,” with “a right to be here.”

This is the poem’s emotional center. After so much practical advice, it offers something closer to a blessing: you belong. The next sentence adds that the universe is “unfolding as it should,” whether or not it seems so, and it asks the reader to trust a larger order they cannot see.

Faith Without Doctrine

The 20th sentence asks the reader to be at peace with God, “whatever you conceive Him to be.” The phrase is generous and open. It allows a churchgoer, a doubter, or a believer in some impersonal order to take the sentence as their own.

This openness helps explain the poem’s wide appeal. It sounds spiritual without belonging to any one creed, which may be one reason it was so easily mistaken for an ancient text.

Form and Technique

“Desiderata” is a prose poem. It has no rhyme, no meter, and no line breaks in the 1948 printing. Instead, it is built from sentences that sound like proverbs.

Many sentences have two halves joined by a semicolon, a structure that mirrors the poem’s theme of balance: “Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.” The first half gives an instruction, and the second gives the reason.

Ehrmann’s word choice mixes simple speech with a slightly formal, old-fashioned diction. Words like “placidly,” “vexatious,” “aridity,” and “feign” give the poem the air of an older wisdom text, which may be part of why so many readers believed the 1692 story.

The poem also stays in the imperative mood: “Go,” “Speak,” “Avoid,” “Enjoy,” “Keep,” and “Be.” Near the end, the sentences shorten, and the final two, “Be cheerful. Strive to be happy,” are the simplest in the poem, as if all the earlier advice has been boiled down to two instructions.

Notable Lines

Four passages carry most of the poem’s fame.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

Sentence 1

The opening sentence gives the poem its keynote. “Placidly” means calmly and without agitation, and the sentence pairs the outer noise of the world with an inner silence the reader can carry along.

Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Sentence 12

Here, Ehrmann compares love to grass, which dries out and comes back every year. “Perennial” is a gardener’s word for a plant that returns season after season, and the image promises that love survives disappointment.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Sentences 18 to 19

These two sentences are the heart of the poem. The first gives the reader a place in creation equal to the trees and the stars. The second asks for trust in a larger order, and it is the sentence that Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau quoted just after the 1972 federal election.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Sentences 22 to 24

The last long sentence admits that life holds pretense, dull work, and disappointment. The poem doesn’t deny any of that, yet it still calls the world beautiful, which makes the closing call to be cheerful feel earned rather than naive.

Themes

Four ideas run through the poem’s advice.

Inner Peace

Peace frames the poem. It begins with the peace that may be found in silence and ends with the instruction to “keep peace in your soul.” In between, almost every piece of advice is a way of protecting that calm.

Self-Acceptance

The poem warns against comparing yourself with others and asks the reader to “be gentle” with themselves. It treats self-acceptance not as vanity but as the ground for living well with other people.

Belonging

The claim that the reader has “a right to be here” answers a fear that many people carry without naming it. The poem places each person in the same universe as the trees and the stars, and it treats that place as a birthright rather than a reward.

Hope

The poem is honest about trickery, fatigue, loneliness, and broken dreams. Its hope does not come from ignoring them but from insisting, at the end, that the world is still beautiful and that happiness is worth striving for.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions readers most often ask about “Desiderata.”

Who Wrote “Desiderata”?

Max Ehrmann (1872–1945), a lawyer, businessman, and writer from Terre Haute, Indiana. He wrote it in 1927 and registered a copyright that year. It was not found in a Baltimore church in 1692; that story grew from copies handed out at Old Saint Paul’s Church in Baltimore in the late 1950s, which carried the church’s founding date.

What Does “Desiderata” Mean?

Desiderata is Latin for “things desired” or “things needed,” the plural of desideratum. The title fits the poem, which is a list of the qualities and attitudes that Ehrmann thought a good life requires.

Is “Desiderata” in the Public Domain?

In the United States, yes. A federal court ruled in 1975, and an appeals court agreed in 1976, that the copyright had been forfeited because the poem was printed without a copyright notice with the author’s permission. Even apart from that ruling, a copyright dating from 1927 would have expired in the United States at the end of 2022. Ehrmann died in 1945, so the poem is also in the public domain in Canada.

Was “Desiderata” Really Found in Old Saint Paul’s Church?

No. The church’s rector, the Reverend Frederick Kates, used the poem in devotional material for his congregation in the late 1950s, and the sheets carried the church’s founding year, 1692. As copies spread without Ehrmann’s name, that date was mistaken for the poem’s age. Ehrmann had written it more than 30 years earlier, in 1927.

Why Is “Desiderata” So Popular?

It offers gentle, practical advice in a calm voice, and it ends with reassurance rather than warning. Its openness about God lets readers of many beliefs take it as their own. It also had a remarkable boost from popular music: Les Crane’s 1971 spoken-word recording reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording.

Glossary

Ehrmann’s language is mostly simple, but a few older or formal words are worth a closer look.

• placidly (sentence 1): Calmly and peacefully, without agitation.
• without surrender (sentence 2): Without giving up your own beliefs or self-respect.
• vexatious (sentence 4): Annoying or troubling; causing irritation.
• feign (sentence 11): To pretend or fake.
• aridity (sentence 12): Dryness; here, emotional emptiness.
• disenchantment (sentence 12): The disappointment that comes when an illusion is lost.
• perennial (sentence 12): Lasting or returning year after year, like a perennial plant.
• counsel of the years (sentence 13): The wisdom that comes with age.
• wholesome discipline (sentence 17): Healthy self-control, as opposed to harsh self-punishment.
• sham (sentence 22): Pretense or fakery.
• drudgery (sentence 22): Hard, dull, and repetitive work.

In Popular Culture

Les Crane’s spoken-word version, with music by Fred Werner, was released by Warner Bros. in 1971. It reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1971, and it won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording in 1972.

The next year, it inspired a parody. “Deteriorata,” written by Tony Hendra with music by Christopher Guest, appeared on the National Lampoon album Radio Dinner (1972), narrated by Norman Rose with vocals by Melissa Manchester.

In 2010, Terre Haute unveiled a bronze statue of Ehrmann by Bill Wolfe, showing the poet seated on a park bench.

Related Poems

If “Desiderata” speaks to you, these poems share its calm advice, its hope, or its place on walls and greeting cards.

• If— by Rudyard Kipling: Another poem of advice built on balanced conditions, set in strict rhymed stanzas.
• A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: A 19th-century call to live with purpose and courage.
• Invictus by William Ernest Henley: A short poem about inner strength in the face of hardship.
• Death Is Nothing at All by Henry Scott Holland: Another prose passage that became a beloved reading, often presented as a poem though it comes from a 1910 sermon.