How to Fish

"Granpa said if you show a feller how to do, it was a lot better than giving him something. He said if you learnt a man to make for hisself, then he would be all right; but if you just give him something and didn't learn him anything, then you would be continually giving to the man the rest of your natural life. Granpa said you would be doing the man a disservice, for if he became dependent on you, then you taken away his character and had stole it from him.

Granpa said some folks just liked to continually give because it made them feel uppity, and better than the feller they was giving to; when all they had to do was learn the feller a little something which would make him dependent on hisself.
Granpa said human nature being what it was they was some fellers found out that some people liked to feel uppity. He said those fellers got to be such sorry men that they was anybody's dog that would hunt them. They got down to where they would rather be a hound to Mr. Uppitys than to be their own man. He said they continually whined about what they needed, when what they needed was some learning done by a hard boot stuck in their backside.

Granpa said some nations was uppity in the same way and would give and give so they could call themselves big shots, when if they had their heart in the right place, would learn the people to who they was giving how to do for theirselves. Granpa said these nations wouldn't do this because then the other people would not be dependent on them, and that's what they was after in the first place."

--The Education of Little Tree, Forrest Carter, p. 158