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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.