The great strength of Christian sanctity has always been simply this - that the worst enemies of the saints could not say of the saints anything worse than they said of themselves. It is disheartening to go on abusing a man while he is quite unconscious of your presence, but is in a low and furious undertone abusing himself. This has always been the strong point of even the most commonplace Christianity. Suppose the village Atheist had a sudden and splendid impulse to rush into the village church and denounce everybody there as miserable offenders. It was always quite possible that he might break in at the exact moment when they were saying the same thing themselves. You can say anything against a man who praises himself, but a man who blames himself is invulnerable.

-October 12, 1907, Illustrated London News