Respect yourself and others will respect you.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
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
Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.
—Clint Eastwood (b.1930) American Film Director, Film Producer, Film Actor
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
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
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
Respecting yourself means listening to your body and emotions continuously. Then acting beyond a linear logic to achieve ones goals.
—Unknown
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
If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
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
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
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
He who is bashful before others but is not before himself is wanting in self-respect.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
He who is ashamed will not easily commit sin.
—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
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 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
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
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
Above all things, reverenee yourself.
—Pythagoras (570–495 BCE) Greek Philosopher
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
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
Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.
—Les Brown
Self-respect…that corner-stone of all virtue.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
Self-respect knows no considerations.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The world is governed by self-interest only.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
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
One of the very best of all earthly possessions is self-possession.
—George D. Prentice (1802–70) American Journalist, Editor