"Our whole connection with the poor should tend to awaken in them the consciousness of their moral powers and responsibility, and to raise  them in spirit and hope above their circumstances. They should be aided to know themselves, by the estimate we form of them by our love and compassion. They should be rescued from self-contempt by seeing others impressed with the great purpose of their being. We may call the poor unfortunate, but never call them low. If faithful to their light, they stand among the high. They have no superiors, but in those who follow a brighter, purer light; and to withhold from them respect is to defraud their virtue of a support which is among the most sacred rights of mankind. Are they morally fallen and lost? They should still learn, in our unaffected concern, the worth of the fallen soul, and learn that nothings seems to us so fearful as its degradation." William Ellery Channing.