The symbol of all relationships among [rational] men, the moral symbol of
respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live by values, not by loot,
are traders, both in matter and in spirit. A trader is a man who earns what he
gets and does not give or take the undeserved. A trader does not ask to be paid
for his failures, nor does he ask to be loved for his flaws. A trader does not
squander his body as fodder or his soul as alms. Just as he does not give his
work except in trade for material values, so he does not give the values of his
spirit—his love, his friendship, his esteem—except in payment and in trade
for human virtues, in payment for his own selfish pleasure, which he receives
from men he can respect. The mystic parasites who have, throughout the ages,
reviled the traders and held them in contempt, while honoring the beggars and
the looters, have known the secret motive of their sneers: a trader is the
entity they dread—a man of justice.