A great quote

"I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."--Booker T. Washington

I discovered this quote again by visiting an old messageboard archive I keep from when I had a writer's online community. There was this lovely quote, right where I'd left it.

My comment after having posted this quote was kind of interesting:

...and it is amazing how many people will hate you for not being a hater. What's up with that? Unhappy people? Misery loves company? I kind of feel bad for people like that because I understand how unhappy they really are. I love people and I love helping people. That's all.

I recall (somewhat) being in an online community related to a screenwriting contest and even though the majority of people there were intent on polishing their writing skills, there were a few folks so down on themselves that they persisted in "trolling the place up" and one of their tactics was to launch attack wars against anyone they perceived as intelligent and self-assured and focused solely on helping their fellow writers.

That's what trolls do. They don't feel very good about themselves so they insist that everyone feel as awful as they do. It's very sad.

So, in place of responding to trolls in the way they would address me, I posted that quote instead.

I guess it was kind of like holding up a talisman to ward off the evil spirits. My apologies to Mr. Booker T. Washington or those that safeguard his memory because I don't think Mr. Washington had cyberspace trolls on his mind when he said that. Ha ha ha...