Kind but thoughtless people, who take up the work of "slumming," intent upon elevating and reforming the needy classes, are apt to forget that these unfortunates have self-respect and rights and sensitive feelings.
"But I am not derided," said Diogenes, when some one told him he was derided.

"Only those are ridiculed who feel the ridicule and are discomposed by it." Dr.Franklin used to say that if a man makes a sheep of himself the wolves will eat him.

Not less true is it that if a man is supposed to be a sheep, wolves will very likely try to eat him.
"O God, assist our side," prayed the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, a general in the Prussian service, before going into battle.

"At least, avoid assisting the enemy, and leave the result to me." "If a man possesses the consciousness of what he is," said Schelling, "he will soon also learn what he ought to be; let him have a theoretical respect for himself, and a practical will soon follow." A person under the firm persuasion that he can command resources virtually has them.
"Humility is the part of wisdom, and is most becoming in men," said Kossuth; "but let no one discourage self-reliance; it is, of all the rest, the greatest quality of true manliness." Froude wrote: "A tree must be rooted in the soil before it can bear flowers or fruit.

A man must learn to stand upright upon his own feet, to respect himself, to be independent of charity or accident.