What does this quote mean?

“You may give them your love but not your thoughts.”

Care can be generous without requiring another person to inherit every belief or preference.

Source note: The Prophet, “On Children.”

“That her hand may be given with dignity, she must be able to stand alone.”

A relationship entered from the ability to stand independently can preserve dignity more fully than one made necessary by the inability to exist outside it.

Source note: Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Fuller connects the dignity of freely giving oneself in relationship with the prior ability to stand independently.

“He that walketh uprightly walketh surely.”

Consistent upright conduct reduces the need to maintain conflicting stories or hidden motives.

Source note: Proverbs 10:9 in the King James Version; the opening clause is quoted here.

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”

Polonius frames integrity as consistency between inward conviction and outward conduct, although the advice belongs to a fallible fictional counselor.

Source note: Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3; Polonius gives Laertes this advice before Laertes leaves for France.

“The soul selects her own society, then shuts the door.”

Dickinson’s compressed image emphasizes selective attention and the right to decide what receives intimate access.

Source note: “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”; capitalization is lightly normalized.

“One principal of action is sufficient—Respect thyself.”

Wollstonecraft makes self-respect a moral standard rather than self-flattery: conduct should remain compatible with one’s own sense of truth and justice instead of being reorganized around gaining a respectable social position.

Source note: 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.