He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
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
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 is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price.
—Unknown
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
He who is bashful before others but is not before himself is wanting in self-respect.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
Self-respect…that corner-stone of all virtue.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
One of the very best of all earthly possessions is self-possession.
—George D. Prentice (1802–70) American Journalist, Editor
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
The reverence of man’s self, is, nest to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
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
Self-respect is nothing to hide behind. When you need it most it isn’t there.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
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
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
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
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
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
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72) American Jewish Rabbi
The duty of man is the same in respect to his own nature as in respect to the nature of all other things, namely not to follow it but to amend it.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
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
If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
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
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
No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.
—Les Brown
Respecting yourself means listening to your body and emotions continuously. Then acting beyond a linear logic to achieve ones goals.
—Unknown
The world is governed by self-interest only.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
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