"Bibliomania ~ passionate enthusiasm for collecting and possessing books."

 

A while back, I was scouring through books at Goodwill. 

I guess I could be considered a bibliomaniac. 

The secret to this fascination with the written word eludes me. 

I really don't know what it is about books that delights me so, what I do know is I love them.

This day I came across an enchanting little book by Kent M. Keith called Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments...Finding Personal Meaning in a Crazy World. 

It is profound. 

In this small volume, Keith elaborates on the  commandments which he wrote 

when he was nineteen at Harvard. 

They have been reproduced and repeated often through the years. 

It was when Keith realized these simple words written years earlier had traversed the globe and been repeated by Mother Teresa that he chose to publish them in a small explanatory text. 

Enjoy.

 

Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments

~

"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."

~

Wise advice...