"Master, you had right of way over that man on the bicycle, yet you slowed down and gave him his way?"
"Ah, but we are comfortable in our car and he is cycling in this pouring rain. Certainly there was no need to bother him. Have I lost by not forcing him to stop?"
"But he did not even thank you for it!"
"God forbid that I should be happy for being thanked, for the 'other' being grateful. I feel the better myself only because of giving, certainly not by receiving, by earning thanks. I made his plight a tiny bit easier for him, and I gained by being a tiny bit better through the action of gentleness, humility even.
Don't you know, gentleness is one of the pillars on the Way of
Human Dignity? The Way also says: 'My happiness is strictly medependable, not
resting on the gratitude IN others, or shown by
others' (Tao/Stoic principle)."
[63],
[111]