Respect is earned, not demanded — and these quotes explain why. This collection covers dignity, mutual regard, self-respect, and the way treating people well tends to come back around, even when it takes a while.
“Self-respect is the fruit of discipline the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.”
“When you have fans who are hassling you the entire game and you ignore them, they respect you because their job is to try and distract you. And if they don't distract you, that means you're focused on doing your job. And who knows, by the end, sometimes you even win them over.”
“Most young people have tremendous respect for older people's views.”
“Often people display a curious respect for a man drunk, rather like the respect of simple races for the insane... There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions.”
“I respect people who feel things passionately. I do. But when someone is a judge, that is not what they should bring to the bench. It is not really passion, except in rare instances, that serves the bench well. It is, rather, an ability to understand the law and follow it.”
“I get no respect. The way my luck is running, if I was a politician I would be honest.”
“We need to respect choices that women make.”
“I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.”
“People always love and respect characters who speak the truth, even if the truth hurts.”
“Among those who are satisfactory in this respect it is desirable to have represented as great a diversity of intellectual tradition, social milieu and personal character as possible.”
“There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.”
“I don't regret anything I ever do or say. I don't like to live my life being censored. I like to say what I feel, and I think people respect that because you're honest.”
“That's what people respect, the fact that I wasn't a chump that laid on his back and gave up.”
“I respect a woman too much to marry her.”
“Voters don't have to love him, Romney advisers say, but they will respect him.”
“There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.”