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“If you would improve, submit to be considered without sense and foolish with respect to externals.”
Improvement can require tolerating other people’s low opinion when their standards are based on external status rather than the character being cultivated.
Source note: Enchiridion, section XIII, George Long translation; the advice warns against pursuing both inner discipline and external reputation.
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“It is what a man makes of himself that counts.”
Jordan places developed character and chosen conduct above passive labels or circumstances when judging what a person can become.
Source note: Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, “The Kingship of Self-Control.” Project Gutenberg #51469. The line belongs to late-nineteenth-century self-mastery literature and is not evidence that circumstance is irrelevant.
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“Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.”
Stanton challenges a moral standard that praises women mainly for self-denial, arguing instead that developing one’s capacities is itself an important obligation.
Source note: The Woman’s Bible, Stanton commentary; the line appears in her critique of idealizing women’s self-sacrifice and is preserved in the Project Gutenberg text.
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“Self-respect, originating in self-love, instigates the first step of improvement.”
Improvement can begin when a person values themselves enough to believe that their conduct, circumstances, and future are worth deliberate effort.
Source note: Thrift, Chapter II, “Habits of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. In a discussion of self-improvement and moral independence, Smiles presents self-respect as the impulse that makes a person rise, develop intelligence and improve condition.
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“What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others.”
Mature judgment begins with one’s own conduct and capacities rather than making other people the first explanation for every outcome.
Source note: The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV contrasts inward self-examination with dependence on others.
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“Believe in yourself; you may succeed when others do not believe in you, but never when you do not believe in yourself.”
External encouragement can help, but Marden makes self-belief the non-substitutable part of action: progress is difficult when a person has already decided internally that success is impossible.
Source note: How to Succeed, chapter “Hold Up Your Head,” in the Project Gutenberg text; the book’s period language and success philosophy are preserved as historical self-development writing.