Be polite and generous, but don’t undervalue yourself. You will be useful, at any rate; you may just as well be happy, while you are about it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar

Article (1861-04), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 32, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 42
    (Source)

Originally serialized as “The Professor’s Story,” but collected as the novel Elsie Venner, ch. 32 (1861).