Siman 255

A person should always distance himself from receiving tzedakah, if it is at all possible for him to live even in straits. And even to eat on Shabbat as on a weekday, as our sages, of blessed memory, said: Make your Shabbat like a weekday, and do not be beholden to people. And even if he was a respected sage and became poor—he should engage in a craft, even a degrading craft, and not be beholden to people. And so our sages, of blessed memory, commanded in Pesachim (Pesachim 113a), see there. However, if there is in this a disgrace to the Torah, he should not do so, and we have already written regarding this in siman 242.

And so the sages taught in the Mishnah at the end of Peah, that anyone who does not need to take from charity and takes, meaning he deceives the people and says "he is poor" – he does not die until he truly becomes dependent on others. And likewise the opposite, when one needs to take and cannot earn a living, such as an elderly person or a sick person or a person of suffering, or one who has many daughters and has nothing with which to marry them off, and he is arrogant and does not take – behold, this person spills blood and is culpable for his life, and he has nothing from his suffering but iniquities and sins. However, one who needs to take, and with difficulty is able to live, and afflicts himself and presses the hour, and lives a life of suffering on bread and water so that he will not need to take and will not burden the community, and not because of pride – he does not die of old age until he sustains others from his own. And regarding him the verse says: "Blessed is the man who trusts in Hashem, and Hashem shall be his trust."