Self-assertion is the practical complement of self-esteem. To be largely endowed with the latter quality, yet constrained by a coward delicacy to repress it, is to suffer martyrdom at the pleasure of every robust assailant, and in the end be driven to the refuge of a moody solitude.
12 April 2012
The Refuge of a Moody Solitude
George Gissing, Born in Exile (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1896), p. 54:
