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Aubri White
ENGL 3050
Analysis 3
December 13, 2012
I chose to write my last analysis on the The Paradoxical Commandments composed by Dr. Kent
M. Keith in 1968. I have a framed poster on my wall of these commandments titled The Final Analysis
“by” Mother Teresa, but I never knew (until I researched it) that it was in fact not the original poem or
commandments. I will be talking about four different versions of the poem that I have found, each a
little bit different from the other.
The Paradoxical Commandments were originally written by Dr. Kent M. Keith when he
was 19 years old sophomore at Harvard University. These commandments have been
notoriously mistaken to have been written by Mother Teresa due to the fact that they were
seen on her wall of her orphanage. In 1995 a book was published by Lucinda Vardey called
Mother Teresa: A Simple Path that exclaims she had written the poem and had called it
Anyway. Here is the original poem written in 1968:
The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith
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.
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Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Paradox is described as “a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or
absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.” Another word for paradoxical is ironic or
impossible, therefore, the title of the original poem can be said to be the ironic/impossible
commandments. Do you think the poem conveys the meaning of being ironic or impossible?
Does Dr. Keith see these commandments as impossible for others to achieve within and
throughout their lifetime?
The next version of this poem I am going to compare it to is the version that was found
on the wall of an orphanage and was thought to be transpired by Mother Teresa in the early
1990’s (also the same adaptation published in Lucinda Vardey’s book Mother Teresa: A Simple
Path):
Anyway
People are unreasonable, illogical, 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 win false friends and true enemies,
succeed anyway.
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
be honest and frank anyway.
What you spent years building may be
destroyed overnight,
build anyway.
People really need help
but may attack you if you 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've got anyway.
There are two commandments missing from the original Paradoxical Commandments,
number six, “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;” and number seven
“People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.” The
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reason I think this is because perhaps Mother Teresa had them up in her orphanage. She might
have seen the six and seventh commandments as a form of bullying and not want to put that in
children’s minds. Another reason could be that the six commandment mentions men and
women when there were clearly children in her orphanage. Whatever the reason, these two
commandments did not find their way on her wall.
This next approach of this poem was shown to Rev. Robert Schuller, at Mother Teresa’s
orphanage, which he later published in his book Turning Hurts into Halos:
Anyway
People are unreasonable, illogical, 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 win false friends and true enemies
...be successful anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow
...do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable
...be honest and frank anyway.
People love underdogs but follow only top dogs
...follow some underdog anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight
...build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you try to help
...help people anyway.
If you give the world the best you have, you may get kicked in the teeth
...but give the world the best you have
...ANYWAY.
The fourth commandment “The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
do good anyway” and the last commandment “Give the world the best you have and you'll get
kicked in the teeth, give the world the best you've got anyway” (both taken from Anyway pg. 2)
are different from one another in these to styles of the poem. In the poem on page 2 these two
commandments declare that what you do will be forgotten and that you will get kicked in the
teeth. In the poem on page 3 the fourth and last commandments state that what you do may
be forgotten and that you may get kicked in the teeth. I think this is a very significant change
between the two limericks. Anyway (page 2) gives off the vibe that no matter what you do or
how hard you try you will be let down and disappointed, but you have to look past it and build
yourself back up again. Whereas, from Anyway (page 3) says that you might be let down and
disappointed. That things do not always turn out the way you planned, but sometimes they do;
regardless of the outcome you need to think positive and be uplifting believing in yourself. I like
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the wording from Anyway (page 3) better than Anyway (page 2). I think page 3 gives one more
hope and expectation than does page 2. This relates back to the original Paradoxical
Commandments claiming that when people do succeed in life they will be thwarted, regardless.
The last and final account of the verse that I will analyze has become the most memorable:
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 friends;
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 your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
This revision of the poem is just that, a revision. The English grammar is more modern
and sophisticated which makes it easier to read and comprehend. There were two
commandments added that were not in any of the others; “If you find serenity and happiness
they may be jealous; Be happy anyway” and “Give the world your best anyway. You see, in the
final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.” These
two amendments are very powerful to the overall meaning of the poem. The poem goes from
you can do anything to very spiritual and uplifting. I personally like The Final Analysis the best. I
am a spiritual person and this one has a lot of meaning to me and I feel like it touched me more
than all of the others for that reason. Dr. Kent M. Keith has different thoughts on this adaption,
however, stating:
The last two lines in this "final analysis" version trouble me, because they can be read in a way
that is inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus, the life of Mother Teresa, and the message of
the Paradoxical Commandments themselves. The statement that "it was never between you and
them anyway" seems to justify giving up on, or ignoring, or discounting other people.
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That is what Jesus told us we should not do. Jesus said that there are two great
commandments-to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. So in the final analysis, it is
between you and God, but it is also between you and "them." And when it comes to them, Jesus
made it clear that we have to love people and help people anyway. We can't give up on them or
ignore them or write them off. That is the point of the Paradoxical Commandments as well-we
find meaning when we love and help people, no matter who they may be, or how difficult they
may be. We find meaning by loving and helping them anyway.
I agree with his statement to an extent. I think the overall meaning that was meant to
come through was that it should not matter what anyone else thinks but you. You and God are
the only two people that know who you truly are. That is all that should matter, you should not
have to feel the need to impress others by what you think or do, and God does not judge you
and you do not judge yourself. After I finished analyzing the poems I went through and found all
the “Be Verbs”, do verbs, and auxiliary verbs that I could. I wanted to relate the poems to our
readings and your lectures for the course. It surprised me to find be verbs and do verbs in the
same sentence, but with poetry anything is possible.
Works Cited
Keith, Kent M. The Mother Teresa Connection. 2012.
http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/mother-teresa-connection.html. 22 November
2012.