Bombshell
A dispatch from the late Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was a beautiful forties-era Hollywood film star and a self-taught engineer, who conceived the frequency-hopping radio technology that is used today in everything from military to cellular communications.
Hedy’s extraordinary and ultimately tragic life is told in the excellent 2018 documentary Bombshell. This final scene from the film, above, struck me. Here’s the original quote of the passage she read, source unknown.
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of having a hidden agenda. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
The biggest people with the smallest minds can shoot down the smallest people with the biggest ideas. Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but only follow top dogs. Fight for some underdogs anyway.
You spend years building what may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you depends on the stuff you’re made of.
Update: a subscriber has identified the original author:
(Music video version of Mike Scott song here )
I saw that myself. She really was a great person! And very wise to boot…
Truly inspirational. It goes to show you that you really don't know people by just the surface details. I guess it illustrates that we've all got profound depths and hidden possibilities. And isn't there always a great Waterboys song to sum it all up.