By
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Founder of the Sisters of Charity
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
We were delighted to find the Paradoxical
Commandments (People are
illogical, unreasonable, and
self-centered.") on your website under the
title "Mother Teresa's Advise for Living
a Good Life", attributed to
Mother Teresa.
The Paradoxical Commandments were written by
Kent M. Keith for a
student leadership booklet that was published
and copyrighted in 1968.
The Paradoxical Commandments subsequently
spread throughout the world. Mother
Teresa put them up on the wall of her
children's home in Calcutta, which is
why they are sometimes attributed to her. To
learn more about the origin of
the Paradoxical Commandments, visit www.paradoxicalcommandments.com
.
Please feel free to continue sharing the
Paradoxical Commandments on your
website. However, we would appreciate it if
you would use the original
version (found on the above website),
attribute the work to Kent M. Keith,
include his copyright notice in small print
(Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968,
2001), and provide a link to his website.
Thank you very much!
All best wishes -- Susan Hatch,
Assistant to Dr. Keith, Honolulu, Hawaii