76 Self Respect Quotes That Remind You of Your Own Worth

Self-respect is one of those things that sounds simple until you actually try to hold onto it.

It can slip away quietly. Through the wrong relationships, the wrong compromises, the small moments where you said yes when you meant no.

And rebuilding it is not always about big dramatic changes. Sometimes it starts with a single thought that shifts something inside you.

These self respect quotes are a good place to begin.

Self Respect Quotes

“Respect yourself and others will respect you.” — Confucius

“Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.” — Abraham Joshua Heschel

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” — Alice Walker

“The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.” — Robert Hand

“Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.” — André Gide

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

“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” — Janis Joplin

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” — Lao Tzu

“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.” — Brené Brown

“Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” — Unknown

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Your crown has been bought and paid for. Put it on your head and wear it.” — Maya Angelou

“Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” — Dalai Lama

“The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours.” — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.” — Confucius

“The moment you value yourself, the world begins to value you.” — Oprah Winfrey

“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

“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.” — Joan Didion

“Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.” — Thucydides

“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

“I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.” — Mahatma Gandhi

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

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” — Michel de Montaigne

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

“Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect.” — Theodore Parker

“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

“He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it.” — Alfred Whitney Griswold

“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“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

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.” — Laurence Sterne

“The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.” — Thomas Huxley

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” — Bruce Lee

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” — Charlotte Brontë

“If you have earned your self-respect, respect by others is a luxury; if you haven’t, respect by others is a necessity.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” — Marcus Aurelius

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” — Lao Tzu

“Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price.” — Joan Didion

“There is no respect for others without humility in oneself.” — Henri Frédéric Amiel

“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.” — Adrienne Rich

“I cannot compromise my respect for your love. You can keep your love, I will keep my respect.” — Amit Kalantri

“To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“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

“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others want you to be, rather than being yourself.” — Shannon L. Alder

“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.” — Jack Kornfield

“Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.” — Sir John Herschel

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.” — Harvey Fierstein

“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” — Rita Mae Brown

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.” — Robert Tew

“You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” — Louise L. Hay

“There are other measures of self-respect for a man than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” — Mark Twain

“I see my self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.” — Hunter S. Thompson

“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.” — Michael J. Fox

“It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them.” — Dale E. Turner

“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.” — Robert Holden

“No one is going to value you more than you value yourself.” — Naval Ravikant

“You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop, and what you reinforce.” — Tony Gaskins

“Never trade respect for attention.” — Mel Robbins

“Hard work breeds self-respect.” — Pat Summitt

“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man’s soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.” — Laura Hillenbrand

“The most important form of respect is self-respect. Not only does it show others how to treat themselves, it teaches them how to treat you.” — Richelle E. Goodrich

“Happiness is the highest form of self-respect. A person who allows himself to be happy shows his self-respect.” — Marty Rubin

“By a lie, a man throws away and annihilates his dignity as a man.” — Immanuel Kant

“Make improvements, not excuses. Seek respect, not attention.” — Roy T. Bennett

“Knowing when to walk away is wisdom. Being able to is courage. Walking away with your head held high is dignity.” — Anonymous

“Self-love, self-respect, self-worth: there is a reason they all start with ‘self.’ You cannot find them in anyone else.” — Anonymous

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself.” — Steve Maraboli

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Gautama Buddha

“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.” — Aristotle

“Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.” — George Santayana

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle

“You owe yourself the love that you so freely give to other people.” — Unknown