The Final Analysis

The Final Analysis
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.

Mother Teresa
(Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu)

August 26, 1910 - September 5, 1997

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

Mother Teresa

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The Story of The Final Analysis

"The Paradoxical Commandments" were written by Kent M. Keith and published in 1968 in his booklet for student leaders titled The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council. The Paradoxical Commandments immediately began circulating among student leaders and later the general public in the United States and overseas.

As the Paradoxical Commandments were shared, those who shared them occasionally changed a few words or changed the title and format. One version is known as the "Ten Commandments of Leadership."

The version that Mother Teresa put up on the wall of her children's home in Calcutta was titled "Anyway" and consisted of eight of the original ten Paradoxical Commandments, reformatted as a poem.

Another version of the Paradoxical Commandments, often attributed to Mother Teresa but noticeably different from the version on her wall, is "The Final Analysis".