Michael Walzer Quotes

The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help themselves.

Whatever help we may want from the international community now or in the future, we want to make sure that this help is tailored to help our people to help themselves.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.

Africans… their tired. They’re tired of being the subject of everybody’s charity and care. We are grateful, but we know that we can take charge of our own destinies if we have the will to reform.

The wide world is full of people wanting help, Jon. Would that some could find the courage to help themselves. - Lord Commander Mormont

Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment. In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends upon their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy or social morality which in any way lessens initiative is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers. Let social busybodies and professional "public morals experts" in their fads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under this pretense of social welfare.

Ultimately the greatest help is self-help.

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.

The idea that somebody else is going to swoop down and play the fairy godmother role is pretty unlikely, so why not take care of yourself?

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

Our aim is to help the clients help themselves, not to tell them what to think.

Helping those who have been struck by unforeseeable misfortunes is fundamentally different from making dependency a way of life.

Carefully avoid all undertakings which depends on others; but let him eagerly pursue that which depends on himself.

Tell the people not to depend on me anymore.

Unless men are taught to rely upon themselves they can never be truly worthy of the name of freemen.

In order that she may be able to give her hand with dignity, she must be able to stand alone.

Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, "Go to sleep by yourselves." And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help.

People are tired of being kept from the dignity that allows them to make their own choices.

My mother often told us that it is a poor dog that will not wag its own tail.

I have always told my daughters not to be dependent on anyone in any capacity.

I have a lot of dignity and am my own woman who does not dance to anyone's tunes.

As Aunt Naomi was listing all the things she was going to do to help this person, her friend stopped her in mid-sentence. "Naomi, girl," she said, "you need to resign as general manager of the universe. You need to learn that sometimes the best way to help a person is to let them help themselves. Otherwise, they never learn how. And they are always going to make their problems your problems."

Do for yourself or do without.

Those who ask for help are often those who have failed to do something for themselves.