For a healthy and robust relationship, respect is the foundation. The absence of respect in any relationship can lead to many disputes and conflicts.
A lack of respect is the root cause of many issues in relationships, and it starts with how we treat each other as children. When we are children, we learn to follow the rules and express our emotions respectfully.
As adults, we don’t always know what to do when someone does not show respect. We need to remember that when someone doesn’t show respect for us, they usually show an imbalance of power in the relationship.
Respect is not just for other people – it’s also essential for ourselves. Without it, our self-worth can be trampled on by others without a second thought.
Here are 123 powerful respect quotes that remind you of the responsibilities you should have as a person
“Respect yourself and others will respect you.” ― Confucius
“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
“You can’t force someone to respect you, but you can refuse to be disrespected.” ― Anonymous
“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ― Bryant H. Mcgill
“Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.” ― John Herschell
“Set the standard! Stop expecting others to show you love, acceptance, commitment, & respect when you don’t even show that to yourself.” ― Steve Maraboli
“Once you figure out what respect tastes like, it tastes better than attention. But you have to get there.” ― Pink
“If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.” ― Maya Angelou
“You can’t respect yourself if you’re afraid to be who you are.” ― Amber Heard
“You must respect people, and you must respect money. My father said to me: ‘When you respect money, money will respect you.” ― Yaya Toure
“I believe no matter who you are, respect yourself, respect others.” ― Mo Farah
“The only respect you should have is the one you earn.” ― Stellan Skarsgard
“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
“Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.” ― Tecumseh
“Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.
“Be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, always offering respect onto others and never expecting any in return.” ― Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
“I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
“Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.” ― Albert Einstein
“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
“One of the surprising things in this world is the respect a worthless man has for himself.” ― E. W. Howe
“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
“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
“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
“There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.” ― Henri Amiel
“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ― Bryant H. McGill
“To get down to the quick of it, respect motivates me – not success.” ― Hugh Jackman
“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 W. Dyer
“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
“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” ― Jackie Robinson
“Respect other people’s feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them.” ― Roy T. Bennett
“Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.” ― Albert Camus
“Respecting someone indicates the quality of your personality.” ― Mohammad Sakhi
“If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.” ― Louis D. Brandeis
“I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.” ― Julius Erving
“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, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.” ― Maya Angelou
“He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them.” ― Mencius
“Men are respectable only as they respect.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.” ― Albert Einstein
“Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.” ― R.G. Risch
“We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean… and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.” ― Michelle Obama
“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
“Responsibility and respect of others and their religious beliefs are also part of freedom.” ― Horst Koehler
“Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.” ― Malcolm X
“Take very little notice of those people who choose to treat you poorly. It is how they are defining their story, not yours.” ― Lei Wah
“Don’t let someone get comfortable with disrespecting you.” ― Anonymous
“The respect you show to others (or lack thereof) is an immediate reflection of your own self-respect.” ― Alex Elle
“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy.” ― Anonymous
“If you want respect, you have to learn to give it too.” ― Anonymous
“Don’t lower your standards for anyone or anything. Self-respect is everything.” ― Anonymous
“How people treat other people is a direct reflection of how they feel about themselves.” ― Anonymous
“Treat everyone with kindness and respect, even those who are rude to you – not because they are nice, but because you are.” ― Anonymous
“Ironically people tend to change their attitude towards you when you begin treating them the way they treat you.” ― Anonymous
“We will not agree with everyone, but we should most definitely respect one another.” ― Brooke Griffin
“Don’t waste words on people who deserve your silence. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can say is nothing at all.” ― Anonymous
“When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.” ― Dalai Lama
“Respect should be the first thing you give.” ― Anonymous
“Self-absorbed people only think about what makes them feel good at the moment – they don’t have any respect or regard for anyone else.” ― Anonymous
“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.” ― Billy Graham
“Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance.” ― Abdul Kalam
“Respect starts with yourself.” ― Anonymous
“Truly powerful women don’t explain why they want respect. They simply don’t engage those who don’t give it to them.” ― Anonymous
“If people respect you respect them back, if they disrespect you respect them back. They represent their ideology you represent yours.” ― Anonymous
“A lack of boundaries invites a lack of respect.” ― Anonymous
“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.” ― Laurence Sterne
“Honest communication is built on truth and integrity and upon respect of the one for the other.” ― Benjamin E. Mays
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” ― Dr. Seuss
“Probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues.” ― Cary Grant
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” ― Albert Einstein
“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
“Treat everyone with respect and kindness. Period. No exceptions.” ― Kiana Tom
“I love making new friends and I respect people for a lot of different reasons.” ― Taylor Swift
“Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“If we are not free, no one will respect us.” ― A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
“Be loyal to those who are loyal to you. And respect everyone, even your enemies, and competition.” ― John Cena
“Respecting someone indicate the quality of your personality.” ― Mohammad Rishad Sakhi
“Life is short, and we should respect every moment of it.” ― Orhan Pamuk
“Most good relationships are built on mutual trust and respect.” ― Mona Sutphen
“We must respect the interior laws of creation, of this Earth, to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive.” ― Pope Benedict XVI
“I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.” ― Maya Angelou
“A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.” ― African proverb
“I try to respect everybody out here: players, caddies, fans, media.” ― Phil Mickelson
“Women absolutely deserve respect.” ― Aretha Franklin
“Respect is the word I want. You have to earn it. You give, and you get it in return, that’s how I see it.” ― Joe Torre
“I don’t wait for people to give me respect. I always give them respect.” ― Mariano Rivera
“Your peers will respect you for your integrity and character, not your possessions.” ― David Robinson
“Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.” ― Abraham Joshua Heschel
“Respect comes in two unchangeable steps: giving it and receiving it.” ― Edmond Mbiaka
“Respecting others’ opinions doesn’t mean being untrue to our own.” ― P. M. Forni
“We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.” ― Taylor Swift
“To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.” ― Voltaire
“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
“Respect for women was a very important part of my upbringing.” ― Sam Hunt
“He who wants a rose must respect the thorn.” ― Persian Proverb
“As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.” ― Robert Schuller
“He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us.” ― Arapaho proverb
“I respect everybody, but at the same time, I carry myself with an aura that demands respect, too.” ― Lil’ Kim
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” ― Lao Tzu
“They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
“The key is to learn to respect and honor the complications of other people’s lives.” ― Goldie Hawn
“Respect a man, he will do the more.” ― James Howell
“It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions.” ― Harvey Milk
“If you don’t stand for something, how can anyone respect what you do?” – Miranda Lambert
“Don’t let people disrespect you. My mom says don’t open the door to the devil. Surround yourself with positive people.” ― Cuba Gooding Jr.
“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
“I just feel like if I do good work, then people should respect me for the work I do.” ― Scott Caan
“I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them.” ― Herbert H. Lehman
“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
“When I look at a person, I see a person – not a rank, not a class, not a title.” ― Criss Jami
“Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?” ― Confucius
“Respect is what we owe; love, what we give.” ― Philip James Bailey
“Respect begins with this attitude: I acknowledge that you are a creature of extreme worth.” ― Gary Chapman
“If you live what you believe, you will always have the respect of others.” ― Dale Murphy
“The biggest ingredient in a best friend is someone whose actions you respect and who you can truly be yourself around.” ― Renee Olstead
“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 always have tried to treat people with respect, the way I want to be treated.” ― Derek Jeter
“Show respect even to people who don’t deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but a reflection of yours.” ― Unknown
“With me, what you see is what you get. I try to treat everyone with respect.” ― Dustin Johnson
“This is how you start to get respect, by offering something that you have.” ― Mitch Albom
