Be ambitious, seek to elevate yourselves, to better your lot; too often we are too easily satisfied. When a man is poor, let him live in a hovel. I esteem him; at any moment I tend him the right hand of fellowship; but if by labor, by energy, he can secure to his family comfort and respectability, and does not, then I despise him.
Father, later Archbishop, John Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day sermon, St. Paul, Minnesota 1865