Kipling's use of paradox?

A paradox is a statement that is contradictory but that, in its contrariness, makes a point. "If" is filled with paradox, typically advising the reader toward two extremes of behavior. For example, the fourth stanza advises the ability to "walk with Kings, nor lose the common touch" and to allow "all men count with you, but none too much." Perhaps the most extreme paradox appears in the third stanza, demanding the ability to part with all acquisitions and successes without attachment but simultaneously to have the "Will" to "Hold on!" Kipling uses pairings of extremes to illustrate the complexity that virtuous behavior and model leadership entail. The seeming impossibility of simultaneously emulating two extremes illustrates the true difficulty in becoming what Kipling terms "a Man", in other words, an exemplary human being.