Respect quotes
743 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside respect — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee of external peace."
"To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness."
"In handling men, there are three feelings that a man must not possess-fear, dislike and contempt. If he is afraid of men he cannot handle them. Neither can he influence them in his favor if he dislikes or scorns them. He must neither cringe nor sneer. He must have both self-respect and respect for others."
"A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others."
"The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage they did not know they had."
"Men are born equal but they are also born different."
"Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed."
"Self-respect and a clear conscience are powerful components of integrity and are the basis for enriching your relationships with others."
""In the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.""
"There is only one real misfortune: to forfeit one's own good opinion of oneself. Lose your complacency, once betray your own self-contempt and the world will unhesitatingly endorse it."
"It is not likely that posterity will fall in love with us, but not impossible that it may respect or sympathize; so a man would rather leave behind him the portrait of his spirit than a portrait of his face."
"He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce."
"When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself."
"No one gossips about other people's secret virtues."
"The icy precepts of respect."
"Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have."
"Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views."
"Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it."
"I love the idea that 'a person is a person no matter how small'."
"I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wants."
