And of literature: Nim, thrown from one home to another, vulnerable to cruelty and neglect and dependent on the kindness of strangers, resembles the titular hero of a Dickens novel, an orphan buffeted by circumstances whose biography is also a fable of individual virtue and social injustice.
With Greece's impoverished state structure stretched to breaking point, refugees have been dependent on the kindness of strangers.
For a frugal traveler dependent on the kindness of strangers for transportation, La Bérengerie was in a near-ideal location.
And Britain, as Bank of England governor Mark Carney once said, is dependent on "the kindness of strangers" – on foreigners funding our record current account deficit.
Justine Greening, the international development secretary, said: "It is shocking that nearly 60 million people are now without a home and dependent on the kindness of strangers.
Without it, families maintained by working-age adults are largely dependent on the kindness of strangers, otherwise known as extended unemployment insurance and food stamps.
Also, if Sheridan Whiteside had ever moved in with the Kowalskis, as Allen imagines, Stanley and Stella would have relocated to Mississippi, and Whiteside would have been dependent on the kindness of strangers.
When Maria Barbosa, the oldest and most voluble of the three, invokes "the will of God" to describe her existence, largely dependent on the kindness of strangers, she voices a life-sustaining faith.
Poor little Oliver, played by Barney Clark, is continuously dependent on the kindness of strangers, from the unspeakable Fagin to the gentle scholar Mr Brownlow (Edward Hardwicke) who temporarily rescues Oliver from his life of crime.
