“Help is giving part of yourself to somebody who comes to accept it willingly and needs it badly. So it is that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don’t know what part to give or maybe we don’t like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed.”
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It, He’s talking about his son, but he could just as well be talking about development work