What does this quote mean?

“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.

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

The line playfully treats self-acceptance not as a one-time achievement but as a relationship that lasts throughout life.

Source note: An Ideal Husband, Act 3; Lord Goring delivers the lifelong-romance epigram in Wilde’s social comedy, where self-regard is framed through deliberate wit.

“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.

“Insist on yourself; never imitate.”

Originality begins with developing one’s own capacities rather than copying another person’s surface style.

Source note: Self-Reliance; Emerson gives the imperative while arguing for originality, self-trust, and resistance to imitation rather than dependence on another person’s model.

“It is not selfish to think for oneself.”

Independent thought is distinguished from selfishness: forming one’s own judgment can protect individuality without requiring indifference to other people.

Source note: The Soul of Man under Socialism; Wilde defends individual thought while criticizing social pressure that mistakes conformity for moral virtue.

“The noble soul has reverence for itself.”

The line connects nobility with an inward standard of dignity rather than dependence on applause, rank, or approval from other people.

Source note: Beyond Good and Evil, section 287, Helen Zimmern translation; capitalization modernized from the source edition.