Kindness and Cowardliness

One difference between a kind person and a doormat is that a kind person is meek. He has power that he could wield, and yet he often tactfully restrains it. He exercises self-denial, and when he does choose to wield his power, he proceeds gently. He humbly defers to the other person. The doormat is the one who doesn’t trust any power with which to be meek in the first place. He’s simply afraid. He’s a coward.