To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.
Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.
When we have nothing to cling to as our own and cease thinking of ourselves as people who must defend privileges, we can open ourselves freely to others with the faithful expectation that our strength will manifest itself in our shared weakness.
Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.
When we create hope and opportunity in the lives of others, we allow love, decency and promise to triumph over cowardice and hate.
To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in that we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.
Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.
Collective freedom provides the basic conditions for people to narrate their own lives, hold power accountable, and embrace a capacious notion of human dignity.
Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.