THE PARADOXICAL COMMANDMENTS (LOVE THEM ANYWAY)
    © Copyright Dr. Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001
    Dr. Keith was 19 at the time, a sophmore at Harvard College


    People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
    Love them anyway.

    If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
    Do good anyway.

    If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
    Succeed anyway.

    The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
    Do good anyway.

    Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
    Be honest and frank anyway.

    The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
    Think big anyway.

    People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
    Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

    What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
    Build anyway.

    People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
    Help people anyway.

    Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
    Give the world the best you have anyway.


    Apparently, this poem was tacked on a wall of her Calcutta children's home (orphanage) by Mother Teresa.

    Also showed up in the 1995 Baccalaureate Address of Dr. E. LeBron Fairbanks, President of Mount Vernon Nazarene College.


    Kent M. Keith, The Paradoxical Commandments