(from
'The best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented, disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so. Charity they feel to be a ridiculously inadequate mode of partial restitution, or a sentimental dole, usually accompanied by some impertinent attempt to tyrannise over their private lives. Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table? They should be seated at the board.
'As for being discontented, a man who would not be discontented with such surroundings and such a low mode of life would be a perfect brute. Disobedience is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. '
The Soul of Man Under Socialism by Oscar Wilde (short and well worth a read)
ETA - seriously, every word and paragraph is pure bloody gold. Good old Oscar.