quotations and passages on self-respect

In my day, we didn't have
self-esteem, we had self-respect,
and no more of it than we had earned.

Jane Haddam

Don't seek to gain anything for yourself that forces you to break your
word or lose self-respect; to hate, suspect, or curse another; or to be
insincere or to desire something that needs to remain secret.
Look to the people whose main desire is to nurture their minds and their
inner spirits. They do not fuss, complain, or crave either solitude or
a crowd. And, most important of all, they will live without either striving
or avoiding, and will not care whether their lives are long or short.
If death comes for them at this very instant, they will go as easily as if
they were doing any other act needing self-respect and calm, being careful
of only this through their lives: that their thoughts do not stray into paths
incompatible with an intelligent and social being.

Marcus Aurelius

The capacity for getting
along with our neighbor
depends to a large extent
on the capacity for
getting along with
ourselves. The self-
respecting individuals
will try to be as tolerant
of their neighbor's
shortcomings as they
are of their own.

Eric Hoffer

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back
to ourselves--there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.

Joan Didion

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better
to displease the people by doing what you know is right,
than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

William J.H. Boetcker

If I despised myself, it would be no compensation if everyone
saluted me, and if I respect myself, it does not trouble me
if others hold me lightly.

Max Nordau

It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes
and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment,
but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.

Dale E. Turner

Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.

John Herschel

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that
will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Henry Brooks Adams

My mother insisted that everyone in her life treat her with respect. Though
she wasn't wealthy or well educated, my mother not only understood
and appreciated her value, but believed in it. Strongly. Deeply.
Passionately. . . . when she learned he was cheating on her, she insisted
that he move out of our home. Not the next day or the next week. The very
day Chubby discovered my father had gone back on his promise to be faithful
to her, she told him he had to go. . . . To me, as a child, Chubby's refusal
to take my father back seemed harsh, even cruel. As a woman, however,
I have come to understand it. For my mother, putting Daddy out of the
house and her life wasn't about pride; it was about principle. The one
she had always lived by. The one she believed in with all her heart:
No one was going to love and respect you unless you loved and respected yourself.

Patti LaBelle

Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased.
It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations.
It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places,
when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it;
knowing the beautiful, we have served it;
knowing the truth, we have spoken it.

Whitney Griswold

HOME - contents - Full Life Online
abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - aging - anticipation - appreciation - attitude - authenticity
awareness - balance - beauty - being yourself - beliefs - body - character - children - Christianity - coincidence
commitment - common sense - community - compassion - compliments - compromise - confidence - conscience
contentment - courage - creativity - death - determination - earth - ego - encouragement - enthusiasm - eternity
faith - family - flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - fun - gardening - gentleness - giving - God - goodness
grace - gratitude -growing up - happiness - healing - helpfulness - home - hope - humility - imagination
integrity - joy - kindness - laughter - learning - letting go - life - listening - love - marriage - miracles - mystery
nature - now - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism - patience - peace - perseverance - perspective
play - prayer - principle - purpose - religion - rest - role models - sadness - self - self-respect - serving others - silence
simplicity - spirit - success - time - today - truth - values - war - wisdom - wonder - work - worship
spring - summer - fall - winter - Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - zen sayings
obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

Confucius

Some people have so much respect for their superiors they have none left for themselves.

Peter McArthur

If you want to be respected, you must respect yourself.

Spanish Proverb

Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life.

Joe Clark

Those that respect themselves are safe from others;
They wear a coat of mail that none can pierce.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The principal thing children are taught
by hearing these lullabies is respect.
They are taught to respect certain
things in life and certain people.
By giving respect, they hope to
gain self-respect and through
self-respect, they gain the respect
of others. Self-respect is one of
the qualities my people stress and
try to nurture, and one of the
controls an Indian has as he or
she grows up. Once you lose
your self-respect, you just go down.

Henry Old Coyote

The tragedy is that so many people look for self-confidence
and self-respect everywhere except within themselves,
and so they fail in their search.

Nathaniel Branden

True humility is intelligent self-respect which keeps us from thinking
too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us modest by reminding us
how far we have come short of what we can be.

Ralph W. Sockman

Would that there were an award for people who come
to understand the concept of enough. Good enough.
Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough.
Socially responsible enough. When you have
self-respect, you have enough.

Gail Sheehy

Coming to appreciate your worth can, in some cases, dramatically improve
your circumstances by changing the choices you make and the actions
you take. And as you begin to treat yourself with more respect, other
people begin to do the same, since we subconsciously "train" others how
to treat us through messages we send through body language, tone of
voice, and other subtle cues and behaviors. Discovering your innate
worth and living from that place allows you to make more
constructive choices--to choose the higher roads of life.

Dan Millman