Without self-respect there can be no genuine success. Success won at the cost of self-respect is not success? For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own self-respect.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price.
—Unknown
The individual woman is required a thousand times a day to choose either to accept her appointed role and thereby rescue her good disposition out of the wreckage of her self-respect, or else follow an independent line of behavior and rescue her self-respect out of the wreckage of her good disposition.
—Jeannette Rankin (1880–1973) American Feminist, Pacifist
This above all—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Above all things, reverenee yourself.
—Pythagoras (570–495 BCE) Greek Philosopher
One of the very best of all earthly possessions is self-possession.
—George D. Prentice (1802–70) American Journalist, Editor
Let a man then know his worth, and keep things under his feet. Let him not peep or steal, or skulk up and down with the air of a charity-boy, a bastard, or an interloper.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
You should examine yourself daily. If you find faults, you should correct them. When you find none, you should try even harder.
—Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) English Playwright, Novelist, Zionist Activist
Each of us needs time for mental self-renewal.
—Whitt N. Schultz (1920–84) American Self-Help Author
If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
He who is ashamed will not easily commit sin.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Respecting yourself means listening to your body and emotions continuously. Then acting beyond a linear logic to achieve ones goals.
—Unknown
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
I care not so much what I am in the opinion of others as what I am in my own; I would be rich of myself and not by borrowing.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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 Turner (1917–2006) American Priest, Columnist, Epigrammist
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 (1936–2020) American Writer, Journalist
The world is governed by self-interest only.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
When thou hast profited so much that thou respectest thyself, thou mayest let go thy tutor.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
No more duty can be urged upon those who are entering the great theater of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Self-respect…that corner-stone of all virtue.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
It may be no less dangerous to claim, on certain occasions, too little than too much. There is something captivating in spirit and intrepidity, to which we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can he reasonably expect the confidence of others who too apparently distrusts himself.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; and to have a deference for others governs our manners.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owner’s manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.
—Les Brown
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
The pious and just honoring of ourselves may be thought the fountainhead from whence every laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
He who is bashful before others but is not before himself is wanting in self-respect.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Have not too low thoughts of thyself. The confidence a man hath of his being pleasant in his demeanor is a means whereby he infallibly cometh to be such.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
There is a great difference between him who is ashamed before his own self and him who is only ashamed before others.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith