Wendy Mass quote: “If everyone waited to do something good until they had purely unselfish motivations, no good would ever get done in the…”

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

Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin

This is a variant or paraphrase of The Paradoxical Commandments, by Kent M. Keith, student activist, first composed in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders, which had hung on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, India, and have sometimes become misattributed to her. The version posted at his site http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com begins:
Misattributed
Context: People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

“I thought my heart was pure. We do like to have such good opinions of our own motives when we're about to do something harmful, to someone else.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

“If you had no higher motive than the approval of your fellow mortal, it would do you little good.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXXII : Comparisons: Information Rejected; Helen to Ralph

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

Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin

“I vowed I wouldn't get married until someone gave me one good reason to. No one ever did - but I got married anyway”

Jane Fonda (1937) American actress and activist

Said to Redbook Magazine, quoted by Harold V. Cohen, At Random, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 22 July 1969 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UMpRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=D20DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7053,3057856

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

“Do you want to make a point or do you want to make a change? do you want to get something off your chest, or do you want to get something done?”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Campaign speech in Michigan (1968) https://books.google.com/?id=uXRx5hGm8zYC&dq="Do+you+want+to+make+a+point+or+do+you+want+to+make+a+change"&pg=PA17
1960s

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin

This is a variant or paraphrase of The Paradoxical Commandments, by Kent M. Keith, student activist, first composed in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders, which had hung on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, India, and have sometimes become misattributed to her. The version posted at his site http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com begins:
Misattributed

“To do good is difficult. One who does good first does something hard to do. I have done many good deeds, and, if my sons, grandsons and their descendants up to the end of the world act in like manner, they too will do much good. But whoever amongst them neglects this, they will do evil. Truly, it is easy to do evil.”

Ashoka (-304–-232 BC) Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty

Edicts of Ashoka (c. 257 BC)

“Nothing will ever be the same again.
Good! Wonderful! Wasn’t it all badly flawed anyway?
No, perhaps not. Not until now.”

Greg Bear (1951) American writer best known for science fiction

Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 41 (p. 219)

“If everyone waited to do something good until they had purely unselfish motivations, no good would ever get done in the world. The point is to do it anyway.”

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Wendy Mass 44

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