Meaning of “It is what a man makes of himself…”

Sartor Resartus, Book II, Chapter IX, “The Everlasting Yea,” printed page 156 / Wikisource scan leaf 188 in The Works of Thomas Carlyle, Centenary Edition, Vol. I (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896). “The Ideal is in thyself” occurs in the same spiritual-enfranchisement passage, where Teufelsdröckh argues that the present “Actual” supplies the material to shape an inward Ideal. This collection retains that fictional, metaphysical and explicitly religious frame rather than converting it into modern clinical or self-esteem doctrine.

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.

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.

Villette; excerpt from Lucy Snowe’s reflection on how to advance toward a more independent position. This is fictional first-person narration, and the excerpt is not presented as Brontë speaking autobiographically.

Beyond Good and Evil, section 287, Helen Zimmern public-domain translation, Project Gutenberg #4363. The represented witness prints “THE NOBLE SOUL HAS REVERENCE FOR ITSELF” in capitals; the frozen catalog keeps ordinary capitalization. Nietzsche’s claim belongs to his rank / nobility argument and is not an evidence-based rule of self-esteem.

An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, Project Gutenberg #68724. Wollstonecraft connects “Respect thyself” with religion, justice and self-love while criticizing social arrangements that encourage people to sacrifice truthful character for status.