Daily Inspiration Quote by Edgar Watson Howe

Self-esteem, Howe suggests, is not the reward for virtue but a stubborn human resource, often hoarded most aggressively by the least deserving. The jab lands because it reverses the comforting civics-class story that character and conscience naturally produce dignity. In Howe's newsroom realism, the opposite can feel truer: the "worthless man" is frequently the one least troubled by self-scrutiny, least porous to shame, most insulated by certainty.

The line is built like a quiet indictment. "Surprising" is doing a lot of work, posing as mild amazement while smuggling in moral disgust. Howe isn't shocked that worth exists; he's shocked that worthlessness can coexist with internal applause. That contrast is the mechanism of the wit. It also hints at a social problem, not just a personal failing: respect for oneself functions as a social weapon. A person convinced of his own importance can demand deference, occupy space, and rewrite his record in real time. In politics, business, and small-town power structures, that kind of brazen self-respect becomes a shield against accountability.

As an editor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Howe would have watched reputations being manufactured and defended in public print. The quote reads like a distilled lesson from watching men with flimsy merits argue loudly, posture confidently, and survive scandal with their egos intact. Its subtext is an editorial warning: don't mistake confidence for content. The loudest self-regard in the room may be the clearest signal that you're dealing with emptiness dressed as certainty.