What does this quote mean?

“We cannot deceive ourselves any of the time, and the only way to enjoy our own respect is to deserve it.”

Self-respect is linked to conduct rather than self-flattery: a stable good opinion of oneself is earned by behaving in ways one can honestly stand behind.

Source note: How to Succeed, “Hold Up Your Head”; Marden follows a Lincoln anecdote by arguing that self-respect depends on deserving one’s own approval.

“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.

“Humility should not be an abasement; for it is never a virtue in man to lower himself.”

Janet sharply separates humility from self-degradation: accurate awareness of human weakness should coexist with dignity, so humility does not require pretending that one has no worth or abilities.

Source note: Elements of Morals, section 165, Caroline Rollin Corson translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. Janet contrasts humility with false abasement and defines it alongside self-respect as an accurate estimate of both human weakness and human dignity.

“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead life to sovereign power.”

Tennyson joins respect for oneself with knowledge and restraint: durable personal power is presented as the result of living by an inward law rather than seeking power merely for its own sake.

Source note: Oenone, in The Early Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Project Gutenberg #8601. Pallas speaks the lines while arguing that self-reverence, self-knowledge and self-control lead to a life governed by right rather than by reward; this is poetic character speech, not a prose maxim detached from the poem.

“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.