Quotations about Self-Respect

In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned. ~Jane Haddam


Self-respect is the fruit of discipline... ~Abraham J. Heschel


He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. ~Cyril Connolly


The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs. ~Joan Didion


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


A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. ~Axel Munthe


To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. ~Joan Didion


Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. ~Marcus Aurelius


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


They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them. ~Mahatma Gandhi


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. ~Whitney Griswold


If I despised myself, it would be no compensation if everyone saluted me, and if I respect myself, it does not trouble me if others hold me lightly. ~Max Nordau


Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. ~Theodore Parker


No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect. ~George Bernard Shaw


Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue. ~John Herschel


That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. ~William J.H. Boetcker


I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing. ~Michel de Montaigne


Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life. ~Joe Clark


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


Some people have so much respect for their superiors they have none left for themselves. ~Peter McArthur


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


Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners. ~Laurence Sterne


You do not need to be the designated driver of someone's intoxicated ego. ~Dodinsky, www.dodinsky.com


You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for ones self-respect to be a punching bag. ~Edward Koch


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


Be beautiful if you can, wise if you want to, but be respected - that is essential. ~Anna Gould


Self-respect knows no considerations. ~Mahatma Gandhi


In order to preserve your self-respect, it is sometimes necessary to lie and cheat. ~Robert Byrne


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


Respect yourself and others will respect you. ~Confucius


A man who doesn't trust himself can never really trust anyone else. ~Cardinal De Retz


Respecting yourself means listening to your body and emotions continuously. Then acting beyond a linear logic to achieve ones goals. ~Author Unknown


Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price. ~Author Unknown


If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die. ~Maya Angelou


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 E. Turner