Do It Anyway
--Adopted by Mother Theresa--
--Adopted by Mother Theresa--
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 true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest 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.
5 comments:
I like it.
Bravo, Mr. Ricci. Champagne for everybody --- Let us eat cake.
Though great sentiments and oft repeated, these quotes are misattributed. They are not by Mother Teresa. Several years ago (5? 10? the years all begin to blur), The NY Times wrote a front-page article about this. The words were written in the Sixties by some guy at Harvard who later published them in a book after coming across them accidentally with the misattribution. Now, I confess I can't bolster this argument by naming the author and the book. I'm working on it. I thought for sure that "The Quote Verifier" by Ralph Keyes would have a citation on this. It does not, but I've been corresponding with Mr. Keyes to get to the bottom of it. But as I said, none of this rob's the prayer/poem of its power or legitimacy. I saw on your profile how you like Jim Harrison and Stewart O'Nan. Same here.
Amen to that.
Thank you Laura. You are a kind and thougtful person.
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