I shall be glad when you have strangled the invincible respectability that dogs your steps.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
We have so exalted a notion of the human soul that we cannot bear to be despised, or even not to be esteemed by it. Man, in fact, places all his happiness in this esteem.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
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
Probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues.
—Cary Grant (1904–86) British-American Film Actor
He that respects not is not respected.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Fools take to themselves the respect that is given to their office.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
I hate victims who respect their executioners.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
Every man is to be respected as an absolute end in himself; and it is a crime against the dignity that belongs to him as a human being, to use him as a mere means for some external purpose.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all. Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before. Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance. Almsgiving is the generosity of the rich; social aid levels up social inequalities. Charity separates the rich from the poor; aid raises the needy and sets him on the same level with the rich.
—Eva Peron (1919–52) Argentinean Politician, Social Reformer
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
Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beingsthat doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.
—Buddhist Teaching
I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
No nobler feeling than this of admiration for one higher than himself dwells in the breast of man. It is to this hour, and at all hours, the vivifying influence in man’s life.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
What women want is what men want. They want respect.
—Marilyn vos Savant (b.1946) American Columnist, Author, Lecture, Playwright
We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
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 (1934–2021) American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist
Impudence is the worst of all human diseases.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Religion—a daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.—Impiety—your irreverence toward my deity.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.
—Buddhist Teaching
There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
We live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Few parents nowadays pay any regard to what their children say to them. The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
‘When we take people,’ thou wouldst say, ‘merely as they are, we make them worse; when we treat them as if they were what they should be, we improve them as far as they can be improved.’
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Respect for the fragility and importance of an individual life is still the mark of an educated man.
—Norman Cousins (1912–1990) American Political Journalist
In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
Having chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist