In the 1960s, student leaders everywhere dreamed of changing the world via radical action. Kent Keith, experiencing the turmoil of student activism at Harvard, had a different take: the world may be crazy, but if you act well and meaningfully, the world will change for the better--and so will you. He called it a "Silent Revolution." His own manifesto, published as part of a handbook for student leaders, was a set of "Paradoxical Commandments."
Over the years, these Paradoxical Commandments have traveled round the globe and been cited, borrowed, appropriated, and circulated in speeches and books, and on the Internet--sometimes credited, mostly anonymous. The author's discovery that they had been posted on a wall of Mother Teresa's Children's Home in Calcutta finally prompted him to build this inspiring book around them. Kent Keith illustrates the Paradoxical Commandments with moving stories from his own life experience as well as classic examples set by many famous figures who persevered and thrived despite every kind of adversity.

In a crazy world, the paradoxical life is, in the end, the most rewarding one: "If you can find personal meaning without the world's applause, you are free. You are free to be who you really are. You are free to be what you were meant to be. You are free to find the meaning that others miss. And when you find that meaning, you will find a happiness deeper than any you have ever known."