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Home Page > wikipages > Paradoxical Commandments  

Paradoxical Commandments

These ten maxims have been mistakenly attributed to Mother Teresa because they were found engraved on the wall of the home for the children in Calcutta, India. In fact the ten maxims were written by Kent Keith in 1968, when he was 19 and a sophomore at Harvard. He copyrighted them and included them in a 65 page booklet published for high school student leaders. It had a distribution of about 30,000.

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 anyways

If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies;
Succeed anyways

The biggest ideas, can be shot down by the smallest minds;
Think big anyways

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyways

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyways

If you find serenity and and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyways

The good you do today,people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyways

Give the world the best you have, and you will get kicked in the teeth;
Give the world your best anyway

People really need your help but may attack you if you help them;
Help them anyway

You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Last modified at 5/15/2009 4:20 PM  by Stryse 

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