Explore Respect quotations through trust and reciprocity, communication and conflict, care expressed through action. Compare how different writers frame the idea across distinct works and periods.
“Character is property.”
A good name and dependable conduct are described as forms of value that belong to a person even when material circumstances change.
Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. The brief statement introduces Smiles’s comparison of character with property: an enduring possession expressed through goodwill, esteem and an honourably earned reputation.
“At ev'ry word a reputation dies.”
Pope compresses the destructive speed of fashionable gossip into a comic line about reputations being damaged in ordinary conversation.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto III, line 16 in the 1714 second edition. ‘At ev’ry Word a Reputation dies’ is already present in that edition and remains dated 1714; the line occurs in a satirical description of fashionable social talk rather than as literal reportage.
“Honour thy father and thy mother.”
Respect within family life is framed as an enduring obligation rather than something owed only when relationships are easy or convenient.
Exodus 20:12 in the King James Version; the commandment places honor for parents among core covenant duties.
“Fish and visitors stink in three days.”
Hospitality has limits, and the humor works by comparing an overlong visit with something that naturally becomes unpleasant over time.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; a comic maxim about hospitality, boundaries, and overstaying a welcome.
“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
The line contrasts immediate visual attraction with the more durable appeal of character or merit.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, line 34 in Pope’s 1717 revision; final line of Clarissa’s added speech. The inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717; the narrator immediately notes that the audience gives her no applause, keeping the maxim inside its mock-heroic dramatic setting.
“We will teach our little child to love and honour you”
Florence imagines family memory being deliberately carried forward, with a child taught affection and respect for the grandfather from whom she had been estranged.
Dombey and Son, Chapter 59, Project Gutenberg #821. Florence speaks to Mr Dombey about how she and Walter will raise their child.
“Respect means love, and love and fear cannot be mingled.”
Seneca separates genuine respect from intimidation: a relationship governed by fear cannot provide the same moral bond as voluntary regard.
Letter 47, on master and slave, argues for humane treatment grounded in shared humanity.
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”
A simple test for conduct is to consider whether we would accept the same treatment if our positions were reversed.
The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV gives the maxim as a concise rule for conduct toward others.
“Character is one of the greatest motive powers in the world.”
Character is treated as an active force because reliable conduct shapes trust, influence, and the quality of choices made under ordinary pressure.
Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles opens the chapter by presenting character as a major moral and social force, then distinguishes its influence from intellectual talent, wealth and position.
“If your adversary is long in playing, you ought not to hurry him.”
Franklin makes patience part of fair competition, arguing that disturbing an opponent’s concentration displays rudeness or craft rather than genuine skill.
Benjamin Franklin, The Morals of Chess, rule 4 in the reviewed public-domain Wikisource transcription. Franklin tells a player not to hurry or distract a slow opponent and immediately lists singing, whistling, watch-checking, reading and tapping as examples; the passage is historical conduct advice about fair play.
“Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.”
Respectful treatment is described as business capital because trust, repeat dealings, and reputation often depend on how people are treated as much as on the transaction itself.
The Art of Money Getting, “Be Polite and Kind to Your Customers”; Barnum treats civility as a practical part of durable commercial reputation.
“Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect.”
Talent may attract attention, but durable respect depends more heavily on conduct, reliability, and the moral quality people experience over time.
Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Near the opening, Smiles contrasts admiration for genius with the more durable respect secured by character, framing the latter as a power of conduct rather than intellect alone.
“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.”
Thoreau distinguishes legality from moral rightness, warning that habitual reverence for law can become dangerous when law and conscience point in opposing directions.
Civil Disobedience, first printed in 1849 as “Resistance to Civil Government”; represented Wikisource text. The surrounding paragraph asks whether citizens should resign conscience to legislators.
“moderate your desire of victory over your adversary, and be pleased with one over yourself.”
Franklin shifts the measure of victory from exploiting another player’s mistakes toward self-command, generosity and the ability to restrain one’s own competitive appetite.
The Morals of Chess; Founders Online authoritative Franklin Papers text. The wording begins mid-sentence after Franklin’s condition that the game is not being played rigorously; source context is preserved here.
“A sensible polite person does not assume to be better or wiser or richer than his neighbour.”
Smiles connects humility with ordinary social behavior: modest conduct resists turning differences in knowledge, wealth, rank or achievement into claims of personal superiority over other people.
Character, Chapter IX, “Manner—Art,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles places the sentence in his discussion of politeness as respect for the personality and circumstances of others, then describes the well-mannered person as modest, unpretentious and more interested in doing than boasting.
“He replied he was very glad to hear it, and wanted to know whether I had ever come across one, for he hadn’t.”
The butterman’s retort reverses Pooter’s claim that a City clerk can be a gentleman, making the insult sharper because it first pretends to welcome the possibility.
The Diary of a Nobody, Chapter I, April 6 entry; Project Gutenberg #1026. Pooter reports Borset the butterman’s sarcastic response after Pooter says that a City clerk can be a gentleman: Borset is glad to hear it and asks whether Pooter has ever met one. The retained line is reported fictional dialogue by Borset inside Pooter’s diary, not a statement by either Grossmith author.
“The gentleman, then, is the man who is master of himself, who respects himself, and makes others respect him.”
Amiel links dignity with self-command and self-respect, suggesting that social respect is strongest when it grows from conduct and standards rather than from demanded recognition.
Amiel's Journal, entry dated April 6, 1866, in Mary Augusta Ward’s public-domain English translation; the entry reflects on the qualities of a gentleman.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
The instruction moves humility into relationships by asking people to resist rivalry and deliberately give weight to the interests and dignity of others.
Philippians 2:3 in the King James Version.
“A child should not be ordered about, but should be just as courteously addressed as a grown person in order that he may learn courtesy.”
Key argues that respectful treatment is itself part of teaching respectful conduct: adults model the courtesy they expect children to learn rather than relying only on commands.
The Century of the Child, Chapter III, “Education,” Francis Maro translation revised by the author, Project Gutenberg #57283, printed page 130. The sentence belongs to Key’s early-twentieth-century reform pedagogy; nearby prescriptions are historically situated and are not imported into this collection as current child-safety or clinical guidance.
“They consider that they have given and taken from each other the most sacred pledges, and they may not break them and fall into enmity.”
Socrates depicts two lovers who regard their mutual promises as binding, even though their relationship follows the less philosophical path of his two possible outcomes. The line describes commitment within a particular ancient mythical account; it is not a free-standing promise that every relationship will remain harmonious.
Phaedrus, approximately Stephanus 256d–e, Socrates’s second speech contrasting the self-controlled philosophical lovers with another pair moved more by ambition and desire. Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1636. The sentence belongs to the second pair, NOT the ideal self-controlled pair, which matters to its meaning; these are a philosophical narrator’s words, not a romantic pledge made by Plato.
“Yea, by the dog of Egypt, I should greatly prefer a real friend to all the gold of Darius, or even to Darius himself: I am such a lover of friends as that.”
Socrates tells Menexenus that finding a genuine friend matters more to him than immense wealth or royal power. The comic oath and comparison with Darius are deliberately extravagant, leading into his admission that he does not yet know how friendship is formed. This is a dramatic statement of what he prizes, not a claim that money can never help relationships.
Plato, Lysis, around 211e–212a (opening inquiry into friendship), Socrates addressing Menexenus; Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1579, dramatic text after Menexenus rejoins the discussion. Gold of Darius is a historical royal-wealth comparison and Socrates goes on to question what it means to be a friend. Do not attribute this speech to Plato as personal autobiography.
“The toleration of those that differ from others in matters of religion is so agreeable to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to the genuine reason of mankind, that it seems monstrous for men to be so blind as not to perceive the necessity and advantage of it in so clear a light.”
Locke argues that religious difference should not by itself justify coercion or persecution, grounding toleration both in his reading of Christianity and in a broader appeal to human reason.
A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), public-domain text also preserved in The Works of John Locke. Locke immediately distinguishes civil government from religion and argues that persecution should not be disguised as care for souls. His historical position had limits, so this page does not present the letter as a complete modern theory of equal religious freedom.
Relationship quotations become more useful when they distinguish affection from trust, closeness from dependence, and loyalty from the absence of boundaries.
Compare lines against the actual relationship. A quotation that is right for a close friend may be too intimate for a colleague, while a line about forgiveness does not automatically require reconciliation.
These routes are drawn from the quotations loaded on this page and are meant as starting points, not extra topic labels.
Concise lines for readers who want the core idea without a long passage.
Quotations connected with deeper interpretation, perspective, philosophy, or sustained thought.
Lines connected with action, discipline, effort, habits, work, or perseverance.
Older works represented in the collection, useful for comparing how the topic changes across time.
