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Respect Quotes

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Respect is a feeling of deep admiration that is elicited by a person’s abilities, qualities, or achievements. These respect quotes will have you ready to give and get more of it today.

When you respect someone, whether personally or professionally, you admire them and treat them well. Respecting yourself gives you pride and confidence. You hold yourself in high esteem and know that you are worthy of being treated well.

Respect, both for other people and ourselves, is an essential part of life. These quotes are all about what respect is, earning respect, showing respect to others, and the importance of self-respect.

Quotes about Respect

Respect comes in two unchangeable steps: giving it and receiving it.

Edmond Mbiaka

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Richard Branson quote "Respect is how to treat everyone"
“Respect is how to treat everyone.” – Richard Branson

Tolerance implies a respect for another person, not because he is wrong or even because he is right, but because he is human.

John Cogley

Respect is one of the most important things you can teach a child.

Catherine Pulsifer

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

Confucius

Awe and respect are two different things.

Oliver Reed

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

Albert Einstein

Respect commands itself and it can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.

Eldridge Cleaver
Miguel Ruiz quote "Respect is one of the greatest expressions of love"
“Respect is one of the greatest expressions of love.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that?

Marilyn Monroe

Respect is appreciation of the separateness of the other person, of the ways in which he or she is unique.

Annie Gottlieb

Respect requires empathy, the capacity to anticipate and understand the feelings of others. It requires consideration.

Deborah Norville

Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

Vince Lombardi

Respect begins with this attitude: I acknowledge that you are a creature of extreme worth.

Gary Chapman
Albert Camus quote "Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear"
“Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.” – Albert Camus

I’d rather be respected than loved.

Eli Broad

Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of — for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

Socrates

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

Louis D. Brandeis

To get down to the quick of it, respect motivates me – not success.

Hugh Jackman

Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality.

Frank Herbert
Bruce Glassman quote "The idea of respect is more than just being polite"
“The idea of respect is more than just being polite.” – Bruce Glassman

Most good relationships are built on mutual trust and respect.

Mona Sutphen

One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.

Bryant H. McGill

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

Dalai Lama

Life is short, and we should respect every moment of it.

Orhan Pamuk

One of the surprising things in this world is the respect a worthless man has for himself.

E.W. Howe

Respect has nothing to do with who is right and who is wrong. It has to do with allowing space for someone else’s opinion.

Jackie Viramontez
"Mutual respect is the foundation of genuine harmony"
“Mutual respect is the foundation of genuine harmony.” – Dalai Lama

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.

Bono

I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.

Julius Erving

On Earning Respect

Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.

Roy T. Bennett

My approach is that you have to earn the respect of people you work with.

Mark Pincus
"Men are respectable only as they respect"
“Men are respectable only as they respect.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.

Hunter S. Thompson

There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only those who respect the personality of others can be of real use to them.

Albert Schweitzer

If men are to respect each other for what they are, they must cease to respect each other for what they own.

A.J.P. Taylor

When I look at a person, I see a person – not a rank, not a class, not a title.

Criss Jami
Nyang Proverb "Respect depends on reciprocity"
“Respect depends on reciprocity.” – Nyang Proverb

There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.

Charles Baudelaire

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

Salvador Dali

‘I was wrong,’ builds more respect than ‘I told you so.’

Dan Rockwell

This is how you start to get respect, by offering something that you have.

Mitch Albom

You demand respect and you’ll get it. First of all, you give respect.

Mary J. Blige

If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.

Michael Bassey Johnson
"You can demand courtesy but you have to earn respect"
“You can demand courtesy but you have to earn respect.” – Lawrence Goldstone

We do not earn respect. It is given as a gift. What we do with it is up to us.

Tod Whitaker

You don’t tell people who disagree with you they’d be better off somewhere else. And you don’t reduce them to stereotypes; you address them as fully formed people worthy of respect. You try to persuade them.

Peggy Noonan

Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Thomas Paine

Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.

Gamaliel Bailey
Dennis Franz quote "I respect people and expect that kind of respect back"
“I respect people and expect that kind of respect back.” – Dennis Franz

Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.

R.G. Risch

It is not grey hair that makes one respectable but character.

Rana Junaid Mustafa Gohar

He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them.

Mencius

Treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given.

Hussein Nishah

Make improvements, not excuses. Seek respect, not attention.

Roy T. Bennett
"Respecting someone indicates the quality of your personality"
“Respecting someone indicates the quality of your personality.” – Mohammad Sakhi

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

Abraham Lincoln

I have never bought into the idea that blood is thicker than water. Love and respect are meant to be earned from our children, our spouses, our families, and our friends.

Raquel Cepeda

What we make testifies who we are. People can sense care and can sense carelessness. This relates to respect for each other and carelessness is personally offensive.

Jonathan Ive

I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.

Charles de Gualle
"The right to be respected is won by respecting others"
“The right to be respected is won by respecting others.” – Vasyl Sukhomlynsky

I get no respect. The way my luck is running, if I was a politician I would be honest.

Rodney Dangerfield

Respect is for those who deserve not for those who demand it.

Paulo Coelho

It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help, than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship.

Mark Cuban

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

Mother Teresa

How people treat you with their karma. How you react is yours.

Wayne Dyer
Dizzy Gillespie quote "Where there’s no mutual respect, there’s trouble"
“Where there’s no mutual respect, there’s trouble.” – Dizzy Gillespie

I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he’s wrong, than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.

Malcolm X

Leaders who win the respect of others are the ones who deliver more than they promise, not the ones who promise more than they can deliver.

Mark Clement

Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It’s being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way you’re going to get respect from the players.

Larry Bird

Quotes on Showing Respect

I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.

Albert Einstein

Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them.

Marilyn Monroe
Dr Seuss respect quote "A person's a person, no matter how small"
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” – Dr. Seuss

I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them.

Herbet H. Lehmen

Warriors respect each other. They give dignity to each other either in a win or in a defeat.

Avijeet Das

Respect is what we owe; love, what we give.

Philip James Bailey

When we love and respect people, revealing to them their value, they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them.

Jean Vanier

It is well to respect the leader. Learn from him. Observe him. Study him. But don’t worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers.

David Joseph Schwartz

Politeness is a sign of dignity, not subservience.

Theodore Roosevelt
Anthony Williams quote "Treat others with respect and others will respect you"
“Treat others with respect and others will respect you.” – Anthony Douglas Williams

Show respect even to people who don’t deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but a reflection of yours.

Dave Willis

When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us.

Arapaho Proverb

The truest form of love is how you behave toward someone, not how you feel about them.

Steve Hall

We are not angry with people we fear or respect, as long as we fear or respect them; you cannot be afraid of a person and also at the same time angry with him.

Aristotle

The person who comes up to you and makes the most noise and is the most intrusive is invariably the person in the room who has no respect for you at all, and it’s really all about them.

Robbie Coltrane
James Howell quote "Respect a man, he will do the more"
“Respect a man, he will do the more.” – James Howell

Respect other people regardless of the level they are at… or the level you are at. When you hand out respect, you get it back.

Erik Estrada

Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is mutual respect which makes friendship lasting.

John Henry Newman

This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him.

William Lyon Phelps

I was always taught to respect my elders and I’ve now reached the age when I don’t have anybody to respect.

George Burns

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou
Tecumseh quote "Show respect to all people, but grovel to none"
“Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.” – Tecumseh

A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.

Billy Graham

We must have respect for both plumbers and our philosophers, or neither our pipes or our theories will hold water.

John W. Gardner

When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. When we treat them as if they were what they should be, they will become what they should be.

Thomas S. Monson

When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become.

Louis Pasteur

It’s very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It’s easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.

Fred Rogers
"There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self"
“There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.” – Henri Amiel

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

Winston Churchill

A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.

African Proverb

Happiness abounds when there is genuine respect one for another. Wives draw closer to their husbands, and husbands are more appreciative of their wives, and children are happy, as children are meant to be.

Thomas S. Monson

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Bruce Lee

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.

John W. Gardner

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

Maya Angelou
Orrin Woodward respect quote "A person that does not value your time will not value your advice"
“A person that does not value your time will not value your advice.” – Orrin Woodward

Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it.

Bill Bradley

Respect other people’s feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them.

Roy T. Bennett

Be kind, don’t judge, and have respect for others. If we can all do this, the world would be a better place. The point is to teach this to the next generation.

Jasmine Guinness

I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

Jackie Robinson

Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.

Malcolm X
"To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth"
“To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.” – Voltaire

You should show some respect for what other people see and feel, even though it be the exact opposite of what you see and feel.

Luigi Pirandello

As all human beings are, in my view, creatures of God’s design, we must respect all other human beings. That does not mean I have to agree with their choices or agree with their opinions, but indeed I respect them as human beings.

Stockwell Day Jr.

We should all consider each other as human beings, and we should respect each other.

Malala Yousafzai

A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered.

Felix Adler

You should respect each other and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but should, like milk and water, mingle together.

Buddha

Never judge someone by the way he looks or a book by the way it’s covered; for inside those tattered pages, there’s a lot to be discovered.

Stephen Cosgrove
You can have respect for someone, even if you don’t respect everything they do"
“Respect the man, but not the behavior. You can have respect for someone, even if you don’t respect everything they do.” – Anderson Silva

It is my goal to love everyone. I hate no one. Regardless of their race, religion, their proclivities, the desire of their heart and how they want to live their life and the decisions that they make. I can even respect people’s decisions and lifestyle choices just as I hope they have the courtesy to respect my decisions and my choices.

Kirk Cameron

Someone once told me that if you respect a person, listen to their opinion. And if you do not respect someone, then do not listen to their opinion. And that works both ways.

Maisie Williams

The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.

E.M. Forster

Have a big enough heart to love unconditionally, and a broad enough mind to embrace the differences that make each of us unique.

D.B. Harrop

Responsibility and respect of others and their religious beliefs are also part of freedom.

Horst Koelher

We can really respect a man only if he doesn’t always look out for himself.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"What women want is what men want. They want respect"
“What women want is what men want. They want respect.” – Marilyn Vos Savant

I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect. If it’s not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last very long.

Amy Grant

It is the way one treats his inferiors more than the way he treats his equals which reveals one’s real character.

Charles Bayard Mitchell

I guess at the end of the day, all women like to be appreciated and treated with respect and kindness.

Sofia Vergara

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.

Richard Bach

We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.

Taylor Swift

Self-Respect Quotes

Confucius self respect quote "Respect yourself and others will respect you"
“Respect yourself and others will respect you.” – Confucius

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

Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.

Laurence Sterne

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

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

Mahatma Gandhi

There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.

Nathaniel Branden
Pythagoras self-respect quote "Respect yourself above all"
“Respect yourself above all.” – Pythagoras

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

Lao Tzu

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

Thomas Huxley

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

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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

George Bernard Shaw

Set the standard! Stop expecting others to show you love, acceptance, commitment, & respect when you don’t even show that to yourself.

Steve Maraboli

The secret of a happy life is respect. Respect for yourself and respect for others.

Ayad Akthar
Osho Quote "Respect yourself, respect your own inner voice and follow it"
“Respect yourself, respect your own inner voice and follow it.” – Osho

I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.

Mahatma Gandhi

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself.

Mark Twain

A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack.

Ayn Rand

If we could learn to like ourselves, even a little, maybe our cruelties and angers might melt away.

John Steinbeck

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

Deeply respecting yourself is the first step toward having a deep respect for others.

Amy Leigh Mercree
John Herschel quote "Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue"
“Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.” – John Herschel

It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration, and respect.

Hermann Hesse

Harry Potter’ gave me back self respect. Harry gave me a job to do that I loved more than anything else.

J.K. Rowling

There are lots of people I admire and respect, but I don’t necessarily want to be like them. I’m too happy being myself.

James D’Arcy

You will never gain anyone’s approval by begging for it. When you stand confident in your own worth, respect follows.

Mandy Hale

The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor’s shortcomings as he is of his own.

Eric Hoffer
Amber Heard quote "You can’t respect yourself if you’re afraid to be who you are"
“You can’t respect yourself if you’re afraid to be who you are.” – Amber Heard

I think the most important thing in life is self-love, because if you don’t have self-love, and respect for everything about your own body, your own soul, your own capsule, then how can you have an authentic relationship with anyone else?

Shailene Woodley

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

Marcus Aurelius

Nothing resembles selfishness more closely than self-respect.

George Sand

One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.

Shannon Alder

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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
"Self-respect--the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious"
“Self-respect–the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.” – H.L. Mencken

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

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

Michel de Montaigne

Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.

Thucydides

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

Joan Didion

Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.

Robert Tew
"Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women"
“Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.” – Gordon B. Hinckley

We hope you’ve enjoyed these respect quotes and are inspired to respect yourself and others. Help make the world a better place through respect today.

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Quincy Seale

Quincy is KIM's editor, and has collected and shared inspiring quotes and stories since 2005. Quincy holds an MBA from the University of Dundee and an MSc from the University of Edinburgh, and lives in San Antonio with his wife Natalie, son Alex, and his dog Oban.

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