Thursday, May 15, 2008

Self Dependence

1895

A man must have a reserve of character and purpose.

To the good man no harm can come, be he alive or dead.

He must have a reserve of reputation. Let others think well of us; it will help us to think well of ourselves. No man is free who has not his own good opinion. A man will wear a clean conscience as he would a clean shirt if he knows his neighbors expect it of him. He must have a reserve of love, and this is won by the service of others. "He that brings sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from himself." He must form the ties of family and friendship, that, having something at stake in the goodness of the world, he will do something toward making the world really good.

When every American citizen has reserves like these, he has no need to beg for special favors. All he asks of legislation is that it keep out of his way. He demands no form of special guardianship or protection. He can pay as he goes. The man who cannot has no right to go. Of all forms of greed, the greed for free lunches, the desire to get something for nothing, is the most demoralizing and in the long run most dangerous. The flag of freedom has never floated over a nation of deadheads. — David Starr Jordan in Popular Science Monthly.

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