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
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
I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
To have that sense of one’s intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference.
—Joan Didion (b.1934) American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist
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
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
The white light streams down to be broken up by those human prisms into all the colors of the rainbow. Take your own color in the pattern and be just that.
—Charles Reynolds Brown (1862–1950) American Clergyman
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 ashamed will not easily commit sin.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
—Joan Didion (b.1934) American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist
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
Every one stamps his own value on himself.—The price we challenge for ourselves is given us.—Man is made great or little by his own will.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.
—Les Brown
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
Self-respect knows no considerations.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
He who is bashful before others but is not before himself is wanting in self-respect.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
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
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
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
The reverence of man’s self, is, nest to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
There is hope for a man who is capable of being ashamed.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The world is governed by self-interest only.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
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 e suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it.
—Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906–63) American Historian, Educator
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
The soul that is within me no man can degrade.
—Frederick Douglass (1817–95) American Abolitionist, Author, Editor, Diplomat, Political leader
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
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
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
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
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
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
Above all things, reverenee yourself.
—Pythagoras (570–495 BCE) Greek Philosopher
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
One of the very best of all earthly possessions is self-possession.
—George D. Prentice (1802–70) American Journalist, Editor
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
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
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
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
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
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
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
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
—Frederick Douglass (1817–95) American Abolitionist, Author, Editor, Diplomat, Political leader
Who will adhere to him that abandons himself?
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
Self-respect…that corner-stone of all virtue.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist