No one other than yourself can give you the self-respect you deserve. And as much as respecting others is important, valuing who you truly are should not be forgotten. So don’t settle for less and endure for the best with these 128 self-respect quotes.
Self-Respect Quotes
1. Our self-respect tracks our choices. Every time we act in harmony with our authentic self and our heart, we earn our respect. It is that simple. Every choice matters. – Dan Coppersmith
2. 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
3. The respect of others is important. Self-respect is vital. – Maxime Lagacé
4. Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. – Abraham Joshua Heschel
5. 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
6. The respect you show to others (or lack thereof) is an immediate reflection of your own self-respect. – Alex Elle
7. Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. – Theodore Parker
8. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance. – Abdul Kalam
9. The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs. – Joan Didion
10. 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
11. The truest self-respect is not to think of self. – Henry Ward Beecher
12. Self-respect governs morality: respect for others governs our behavior. – Joseph Alexandre Pierre de Segur, Viscount of Segur
13. Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. – Marcus Aurelius
14. Perhaps the surest test of an individual’s integrity is his refusal to do or say anything that would damage his self-respect. – Thomas S. Monson
15. 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
16. 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 we 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
17. No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect. – George Bernard Shaw
18. Self-respect – The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. – H. L. Mencken
19. 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
20. The reward for doing right is mostly an internal phenomenon: self-respect, dignity, integrity, and self-esteem. – Laura Schlessinger
21. Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue. – John Herschel
22. Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage. – Thucydides
23. A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack. – Ayn Rand
24. I guessed life was like that. You gained and you lost, and if you saved anything from the ruins, even if only a shred of self-respect, it was enough to take you through the next bit. – Dick Francis
25. Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life. – Joe Clark
26. Self-respect knows no considerations. – Mahatma Gandhi
27. 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
28. You got nothin’ to lose but your self-respect. – Wendelin Van Draanen
29. Happiness is the highest form of self-respect. A person who allows himself to be happy shows his self-respect. – Maery Rubin
30. Self-reliance is the highest expression of self-respect. – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
31. There is in the sense of sin something abject, something lacking in self-respect. No good was ever done to any one by the loss of self-respect. – Bertrand Russell
32. A key barometer to help us weigh the rightness of our actions is self-respect. – Sharon Salzberg
33. Self-respect is nothing but self-confidence. – Debasish Mridha
34. Everyone in society should be a role model, not only for their own self-respect, but for respect from others. – Barry Bonds
35. Self-respect is a commodity worth cleaving to. – Diane Lane
36. 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
37. People often confuse self-respect with arrogance. I believe that there is a very thin line between the two. Balance between the two is often what leads to happiness. – Sonali Bendre
38. When you know that you can overcome challenges, you do gain that self-respect, and then you won’t end up in a situation that you regret later on. – Danica McKellar
39. For your own self-respect and sanity, your creative freedom, you have to be careful that you don’t rely too much on other people’s opinions of what you do because it can stunt and inhibit you. – Luke Evans
40. We don’t need bigger cars or fancier clothes. We need self-respect, identity, community, love, variety, beauty, challenge and a purpose in living that is greater than material accumulation. – Donella Meadows
41. Financial problems cause distress and loss of self-respect. – Joseph B. Wirthlin
42. Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. – Henry Brooks Adams
43. The principal thing children are taught by hearing these lullabies is respect. They are taught to respect certain things in life and certain people. By giving respect, they hope to gain self-respect and through self-respect, they gain the respect of others. Self-respect is one of the qualities my people stress and try to nurture, and one of the controls an Indian has as he or she grows up. Once you lose your self-respect, you just go down. – Henry Old Coyote
44. The tragedy is that so many people look for self-confidence and self-respect everywhere except within themselves, and so they fail in their search. – Nathaniel Branden
45. True humility is intelligent self-respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be. – Ralph W. Sockman
46. Nothing resembles selfishness more closely than self-respect. – George Sand
47. Self respect, self worth and self love, all start with self. Stop looking outside of yourself for your value. – Rob Liano
48. Every time you make a commitment to your own self-care, self-love and self-respect and then follow through, you build trust in yourself. – Miranda J. Barrett
49. There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a King. – Orison Swett Marden
50. Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man can clothe himself, the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired. – Samuel Smiles
51. Happiness blooms in the presence of self-respect, and the absence of ego. – Jonathan Lockwood Huie
52. Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye. – Helen Keller
53. What ultimately got me through was my single-minded determination, voiced aloud to myself and recorded in my diary, to discover the causes of my blindness and never to repeat them. Fearlessly pursuing insight was my badge of honor, my route back to self-respect. – Jeanne Safer
54. I’ve learned that if someone threatens my peace of mind, self-respect, or self-worth… I must walk away. I owe it to myself… I owe it to my future. – Steve Maraboli
55. When admiring other people’s gardens, don’t forget to tend to your own flowers. – Sanober Khan
56. Those who doubt themselves will doubt you. Those who limit themselves will try to limit you. Do not fight them. Smile, go your own way, and trust that your example is enough. – Vironika Tugaleva
57. Self-respect is the very cement of character, without which character will not form nor stand; a personal ideal is the only possible foundation for self-respect, without which self-respect degenerates into vanity or conceit, or is lost entirely, its place being taken by worthlessness and the consciousness of worthlessness; and that is the end of all character. It is often said that if we do not respect ourselves no one else will respect us; this is rather a dangerous way to put it; let us rather say that if we are not worthy of our own respect we cannot claim the respect of others. True self-respect is a matter of being and never of mere seeming. – Edward O. Sisson
58. Honesty defines self respect. – Unarine Ramaru
59. Knowing your limits, and that there is a limit to getting what you want, comes from a sense of self-respect instilled in you from an early age. It takes guts to stand up in the face of what you really want, but you have to know in your heart that if you make the wrong choice you won’t be able to live with yourself for the rest of your life. There is only one person who matters at that point and that’s YOU. If you give in to such pressures, you strip away your self-respect, your personal ethics and your standards – the very things that create the fiber that will hold you together for the rest of your life. – Goldie Hawn
60. There are worse things than suffering and death… it is worse to lose one’s self-respect. – Sándor Márai
61. Self-respect is to the soul as oxygen is to the body. Deprive a person of oxygen, and you kill his body; deprive him of self-respect and you kill his spirit. – Thomas Szasz
62. Never be ruled by possessions, and never, ever make wealth more important to you than your self-respect and your dignity. – Julie Garwood
63. Finding out what you’re good at, and doing it to the best of your ability, is the route to self-respect. – J. K. Rowling
64. Too many people think that “good manners” are about subjugating yourself to others. Not true. Respect, and just as important, self-respect are two key elements in this equation. – Steven Petrow
65. Don’t live to please others. Don’t think everyone else knows what’s right or true. Listen to yourself, and be true to yourself. That way, no matter what else happens in life, you will always have your self-respect. – Jane Porter
66. This self-respect and sense of self-worth, the innermost armament of the soul, lies at the heart of humanness; to be deprived of it is to be dehumanized, to be cleaved from, and cast below, mankind. – Laura Hillenbrand
67. Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of the most valuable results of a well conducted education. – William Godwin
68. Every time we choose action over ease or labor over rest, we develop an increasing level of self-worth, self-respect and self-confidence. In the final analysis, it is how we feel about ourselves that provides the greatest reward from any activity. It is not what we get that makes us valuable, it is what we become in the process of doing that brings value into our lives. It is activity that converts human dreams into human reality, and that conversion from idea into actuality gives us a personal value that can come from no other source. – Jim Rohn
69. When you put loving thoughts and behavior into the world, you plant seeds of self-respect. When you put unloving thoughts and behavior into the world, you destroy seeds of self-respect. – Susan Jeffers
70. Every act of self control leads to a sense of self-respect. – Abraham Low
71. Let us resist the opinion of the world fearlessly, provided only that our self-respect grows in proportion to our indifference. – Sophie Swetchine
72. Man works primarily for his own self-respect and not for others or for profit. . . the person who is working for the sake of his own satisfaction, the money he gets in return serves merely as fuel, that is, as a symbol of reward and recognition, in the last analysis, of acceptance by ones fellowmen. – Otto Rank
73. Think first. Think twice. Think again. Respect others. Respect yourself. Respect dreams. – Kevin James
74. All you got in life is your honor, man, your own self-image, your own self-respect. If you lose that, or if you give it away or if you sell it, then you ain’t got it no more. – Lemmy Kilmister
75. Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. – Robert A. Heinlein
76. Exercise often moves us straight from stagnation to inspiration, from problem to solution, from self-pity to self-respect. – Julia Cameron
77. Self respect beats social approval, every time. – Robin Sharma
78. People need self-respect, but self-respect must be earned – it cannot be self-respect if it’s not earned – and the only way to earn anything is to achieve it in the face of the possibility of failing. – Charles A. Murray
79. It is disgraceful to live at the cost of one’s self-respect. Self-respect is the most vital factor in life. Without it, man is a cipher. To live worthily with self-respect, one has to overcome difficulties. It is out of hard and ceaseless struggle alone that one derives strength, confidence and recognition. – B. R. Ambedkar
80. One cannot pay the price of self-respect. – Woodrow Wilson
81. Perhaps the greatest mistake we can make, which causes loss of self-respect, is making the opinions of others more important than our own opinion of ourselves. You’ll find no shortage of opinions directed at you. If you allow them to undermine your self-respect, you’re seeking the respect of others over your own, and you’re abdicating yourself. – Wayne Dyer
82. Strong and rare natures are thus created; misery, almost always a stepmother, is sometimes a mother; privation gives birth to power of soul and mind; distress is the nurse of self-respect; misfortune is a good breast for great souls. – Victor Hugo
83. Self-respect and a clear conscience are powerful components of integrity and are the basis for enriching your relationships with others. – Denis Waitley
84. When the world grinds you down, bent to tear you apart, cling to what you hold dear, and stay true to your heart. For the world has a way to dismantle your cause, to exploit what you lack and expose all your flaws. But when every layer of your being is gone, and it seems there’s no point anymore to go on; just remember one thing, at the end of the day, when you have self-respect they can’t take that away. – Wes Fesler
85. Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external percepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority. – Baltasar Gracian
86. An occasional compliment is necessary to keep up one’s self-respect. – Mark Twain
87. Overcoming difficulties leads to courage, self-respect, and knowing yourself. – Alfred Adler
88. When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect. – Shunryu Suzuki
89. Remember, there is nothing wrong with a healthy sense of self-respect. – Cressida Cowell
90. If you care about yourself, you should care about learning – even learning simple things. You come to have pride in yourself only by accomplishing things, even from fixing some old stairs…Others can’t grant you self-respect, even others who care about you. You have to earn self-respect yourself. – Terry Goodkind
91. But dare rather to quit the platform, plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, & swim far, so shall you come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain & overlook the old. Trust your emotion. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
92. We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued. – Jean De La Bruyere
93. Self-respect can be a extension of your ego or a priceless virtue. – Anonymous Author
94. 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
95. Don’t lower your standards for anyone or anything. Self-respect is everything. – Anonymous
96. Have respect for yourself and no one can take away your self-respect. – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
97. Respect yourself and others will respect you. – Confucius
98. To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. – Unknown
99. Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work. I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect. – Adrienne Rich
100. Self care is not self indulgence. Self care is self respect. – Gateway
101. He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
102. Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners. – Laurence Sterne
103. When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you. – Lao Tzu
104. Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy. – Robert Tew
105. Self respect by definition is a confidence and pride in feeling that you are behaving in an honorable and dignified manner. -Respect yourself by respecting others. – Miya Yamanouchi
106. Respect yourself, respect your own inner voice and follow it. – Osho
107. Deeply respecting yourself is the first step toward having a deep respect for others. – Amy Leigh Mercree
108. Hold yourself in high regard and your abilities will shine. – Jerry Bruckner
109. Turning your back on nothing and walking away is not disloyal, it’s self respect. – Justin K. McFarlane Beau
110. To earn respect, you must earn your own self respect before you can expect others, to respect you. – Auliq Ice
111. Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women. – Gordon B. Hinckley
112. There is no humanity or charity in destroying self-reliance, dignity, and self-respect. – Ronald Reagan
113. If you don’t have self-respect, if you don’t have dignity, if you don’t have some true knowledge of self and who you are, and where you’re coming from, then you’re absolutely lost. – Immortal Technique
114. If there is to be no loss whatever of dignity or self-respect in getting and staying on relief, then there can be no gain in dignity or self-respect in makings some sacrifices to keep off. – Henry Hazlitt
115. Live according to the ethics of excellence, and you can always stand proud. Pride – not vanity, but dignity and self-respect – should carry a lot of weight in helping you make decisions. Let pride help you decide. – Price Pritchett
116. To have that sense of one’s intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything. – Joan Didion
117. Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him. – Bertrand Russell
118. There is a connection between self-nurturing and self-respect. – Julia Cameron
119. The one who fights back retains his dignity and his self-respect. – Jeff Cooper
120. Learn to live in this world with self-respect. – B. R. Ambedkar
121. Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you. – Rob Liano
122. In yourself right now is all the place you’ve got. – Flannery O’Connor
123. If nothing else in this long and short life, let me be true to my conscience, to the dignity of my own heart. Let me act in a way that says, ‘I have honored my spirit as truly as I have honored others’. Let me stand tall and rooted as a mountain in the face of a quaking world. – Jennifer DeLucy
124. Be strong enough to let go of what belittles your worth. – Praharsh Prasoon
125. People learn how to treat us based on how they see us treating ourselves. If I don’t put value on my work or my time, neither will the person I’m helping. Boundaries are a function of self respect and self love. – Brené Brown
126. I respect myself and receive joy form all directions. – Amy Leigh Mercree
127. Too often we let others stamp a price tag on us, and we accept their appraisal of our worth, forgetting we are in fact priceless. – Richelle E. Goodrich
128. Self-respect leads to self-discipline and self-discipline paves a way for respect towards others. – Unarine Ramaru