Self-worth quotes — Page 2

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.

Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX, Chapter VIII, Project Gutenberg #8438. The surrounding argument explicitly contrasts this noble “Self-loving” with the blameworthy form that grasps at wealth, honours and bodily pleasures, so the line is not a defense of simple selfishness.

The Wisdom of Life; the sentence appears in Schopenhauer’s criticism of giving excessive weight to reputation and social opinion.

The Wisdom of Life; Schopenhauer develops a three-part distinction between what a person is, what a person has, and what a person represents in the eyes of others.

The Wisdom of Life; T. Bailey Saunders’s public-domain translation distinguishes what a person is from possessions and from the opinions of other people.

The Wisdom of Life; Schopenhauer criticizes the habit of measuring the value of one’s existence by reputation or the fluctuating opinions of others.

Political Ideals, early discussion of individual development. Russell immediately criticizes the bad teacher who imposes one opinion and produces pupils giving the same answer to doubtful questions.

Political Ideals, discussion of what social institutions should make possible for individuals. Russell immediately connects self-respect with courage, hope and living by the best within oneself despite obstacles.

The Simple Life, later chapter on simple living and wealth, Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner distinguishes possession from personal identity.

Jane Eyre; Jane insists on moral and personal independence during a decisive conversation with Rochester.

Jane Eyre, Chapter XXVII, Project Gutenberg #1260. Jane answers the pressure to remain with Rochester by saying she cares for herself and will respect herself more when friendless and unsupported, then explicitly invokes law, principles and temptation. It is fictional first-person moral reasoning under dramatic pressure, not Charlotte Brontë autobiography or universal relationship advice.

Shirley; fictional narrative description within the novel’s relationship context. The line describes a character’s restraint and must not be presented as a direct autobiographical maxim by Charlotte Brontë.

The Professor; fictional narration describing Frances Henri. The elevated phrasing belongs to the novel’s characterization and is not presented as a context-free statement of Brontë’s own life.

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.

The House of Mirth, Book One, Chapter 1, Project Gutenberg #284. The narrator describes Lily Bart as a product and victim of the civilization that formed her, turning the links of her bracelet into an image of manacles while Selden considers the social forces shaping her life. It remains literary social criticism and characterization rather than a literal claim of imprisonment or a clinical diagnosis.

Aurora Leigh, Book I, printed page 21 / Wikisource scan leaf 30, scan-backed Chapman and Hall third edition (London, 1857), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #56621. After recounting bereavement and a slow return to ordinary consciousness, Aurora says, “For uses, therefore, I must count worth while.” This remains literary first-person narration about loss and renewed engagement with life, not clinical advice or a recovery benchmark.

Solitude of Self; Stanton’s concluding meditation on the “solitude of self” describes an inward domain inaccessible even to the people who love or protect us.

Solitude of Self, 1892 congressional address; punctuation follows a widely reproduced transcription of Stanton’s public-domain speech.

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.

The Woman's Bible, The Book of Judges, Chapter II, Judges xi, Project Gutenberg #9880. Stanton imagines Jephthah's unnamed daughter rejecting sacrifice: ‘My first duty is to develop all the powers given to me and to make the most of myself and my own life.’ This is Stanton's invented protest voice within her commentary, not a biblical quotation or speech preserved in Judges.

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

Enchiridion 9; Epictetus uses illness to illustrate the distinction between external limits and the will.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XXXIII, Hastings Crossley translation.

A Little Princess; Sara uses an imagined inner identity to preserve dignity during poverty and mistreatment.

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Project Gutenberg #71893, in Douglass’s retrospective account of resisting Edward Covey. The passage belongs to the history of slavery and self-emancipation; it should not be reduced to a generic motivational slogan detached from that violence.

My Bondage and My Freedom, immediately after Douglass describes his resistance to Covey; capitalization follows the represented Project Gutenberg text.

My Bondage and My Freedom, Chapter XVII, ‘The Last Flogging,’ Project Gutenberg #202. Douglass calls his fight with Edward Covey the turning point in his ‘life as a slave’ and writes ‘I was a changed being after that fight’ immediately before ‘I WAS A MAN NOW.’ The passage is autobiographical testimony about resistance to enslavement and restored self-respect, not a universal prescription for violence or a clinical theory of agency.

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.

“Love (III),” posthumously published in The Temple (1633), represented by Poetry Foundation. “Love” functions as a personified divine presence within explicitly Christian devotional poetry; the exchange is theological lyric, not secular relationship advice.

At the Back of the North Wind; Project Gutenberg #225. Spoken by the fictional child Diamond to North Wind, so the page preserves speaker and fantasy context rather than presenting it as direct memoir.

The World I Live In (1908), Chapter XII, “The Larger Sanctions,” printed page 160, Project Gutenberg #27683. The sentence “My intellectual horizon is infinitely wide” immediately follows Keller’s assertion about mental vision and belongs to the same first-person philosophical defense of intellectual and imaginative range.

Amiel's Journal, entry dated April 28, 1852, in Mary Augusta Ward’s public-domain translation; Amiel counsels patience with the movement of feeling.

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.

Walden; Thoreau contrasts one’s own deliberate track with paths chosen by others.

Walden, “Solitude”; Thoreau argues that physical aloneness need not amount to loneliness or lack of companionship.

Walden, “Economy,” in the passage contrasting public opinion with a person’s own private opinion of himself.

As a Man Thinketh, “Achievement.”

As a Man Thinketh, “Thought and Character.”

Paradise Lost (1667), Book I, line 254; retained legacy short extract from the fuller Satan sentence beginning ‘The mind is its own place’ and continuing into line 255. It is the same underlying passage as the longer catalog record, not a separate fifth passage.

Proverbs 4:23 in the King James Version.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; the line appears in the story’s recurring contrast between perceived deficiency and existing ability.

“Saturday. The Small-Pox” in Six Town Eclogues (1747), represented by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive. Flavia speaks after smallpox has altered her appearance. Montagu survived smallpox herself, but this record preserves the poem’s dramatic Flavia voice and eighteenth-century beauty/satire context rather than collapsing it into autobiography or medical advice.

Little Women, Chapter 44, “My Lord and Lady,” Project Gutenberg #514. Amy March Laurence says “I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship” while discussing her new married life with Laurie. This exact-contraction record and the older expanded “I am not afraid...” catalog variant represent the same underlying fictional passage.

Life Without and Life Within, Part I ‘Reviews,’ essay ‘Menzel's View of Gœthe,’ Project Gutenberg #39037. ‘For the soul seeks not adorers, but peers’ appears in Fuller's discussion of the youth of genius, mockers and worshippers, immediately contrasting blind worship with ‘intelligent sympathy.’ It remains nineteenth-century literary criticism and intellectual reflection rather than a universal social or relationship rule.

Life Without and Life Within, “The Poor Man”; Fuller argues that difficult experience can produce realistic knowledge of one’s resources and a grounded degree of self-reliance.

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843; the sentence appears in Fuller’s dialogic reflection on temperament, inquiry, and following the direction one’s own character requires.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century; spoken by Fuller’s illustrative figure Miranda while explaining the self-dependence encouraged by her upbringing.

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

Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Fuller explicitly names self-subsistence, self-reliance, and self-impulse within her argument about women’s independence.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century, in the discussion of Miranda; Fuller explicitly connects awakened self-respect with serenity and inward peace.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft distinguishes equality and self-government from power over others.

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.

How to Succeed; the sentence appears in Marden’s discussion of temptation, aspiration, and the damage caused when self-respect is surrendered.

The Victorious Attitude; the sentence is followed by explicitly religious language about faith, so the source page keeps that spiritual context visible.

An Ideal Husband, Act III; Lord Goring tells Phipps “The only possible society is oneself” immediately before the lifelong-romance epigram. Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act III transcription and Project Gutenberg #885; the line remains dandyish comic character speech rather than uncomplicated authorial doctrine.

An Ideal Husband, Act III; Lord Goring tells Phipps that “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance” immediately after saying that the only possible society is oneself. Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act III transcription and Project Gutenberg #885. This remains comic fictional dialogue in Wilde’s social comedy rather than a psychological finding.

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

The Art of Money Getting, “Avoid Debt”; Project Gutenberg #8581. This is Barnum’s forceful moral rhetoric, not a clinical claim about every debtor’s mental state.

Elements of Morals, Chapter XIV, section 165, printed page 296, Caroline Rollin Corson’s 1884 English translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. “Remember that thou art a man and do not degrade thyself: this is self-respect” appears in the same paragraph as Janet’s paired reminder against vain pride, making self-respect and humility complementary parts of his moral argument rather than generic affirmation copy.

Elements of Morals, Chapter XIV, section 165, printed page 296, Caroline Rollin Corson’s 1884 English translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. Janet distinguishes humility from abasement: humility arises from recognition of human weakness, but lowering oneself is not itself a virtue. The passage belongs to nineteenth-century systematic moral philosophy rather than modern clinical self-esteem guidance.

Symposium, Diotima’s ascent toward beauty as recounted by Socrates, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1600. This is one stage in an ancient philosophical account of beauty and love, not a modern psychological ranking of attractiveness.

Stray Birds, aphorism 28, Project Gutenberg #6524, translated from Bengali by Tagore himself. ‘O BEAUTY, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror’ is a compact personified poetic aphorism placed between numbered sayings 27 and 29. It should not be flattened into a literal rule about appearance, self-worth or relationships.

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

Essays, First Series, essay II, “Self-Reliance,” Project Gutenberg #2944. “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” follows Emerson’s claim that society conspires against the manhood of its members through conformity. The represented Gutenberg witness prints a comma after “man,” while the frozen catalog quotation omits that punctuation; the wording is otherwise the same. It remains Transcendentalist moral rhetoric about self-trust and independence rather than a universal instruction to reject social norms or expertise.

Self-Reliance; the sentence follows Emerson’s instruction to let action reveal character.

Self-Reliance, in the passage beginning with Emerson’s argument for nonconformity.

A Christmas Sermon, section III, Project Gutenberg #14535. In the discussion of intervention, revenge and defending a neighbour, Stevenson says one person’s happiness is as sacred as another’s and argues for defending the injured party when both cannot be protected. The inherited section-II note is corrected here after direct source review; “sacred” is moral rhetoric, not modern legal doctrine.

If—, first stanza; the following line qualifies self-confidence with fairness toward doubters.

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.

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.

Dhammapada 160, Chapter XII “Self,” Max Müller translation; “subdued” reflects the translation’s ethical discipline and should not be read as self-contempt.

Les Misérables, Project Gutenberg #135, in the represented Isabel F. Hapgood public-domain English translation. The sentence occurs in the narrator’s reflection on love and blindness; its English phrasing is translation-specific and belongs to the novel’s moral-religious rhetoric.

Darkwater, essay “Of Beauty and Death.” The preceding sentence says that simply wanting to be oneself can be inconceivable to “the average worshiper of the majority”; the line is about individuality amid racialized conformity pressures.

The Souls of Black Folk, “Of the Training of Black Men,” Project Gutenberg #408. The sentence opens a longer passage in which Du Bois moves “across the color line” among Shakespeare, Balzac, Dumas, Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius; the context is Black cultural and intellectual dignity under segregation.

Song of Myself, 1882 text; this statement begins a sequence of increasingly expansive declarations about the speaker’s place in the universe.

Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself.”

Song of Myself, in the passage describing the road each person must travel for themselves.

Song of Myself, section 21 in the 1882 Leaves of Grass text, printed page 45 (Wikisource scan page 51). The line opens Whitman’s section joining bodily and spiritual experience; this locator is specific to the represented 1882 textual state.

Song of Myself, in the passage celebrating the body and the speaker’s delight in his own existence.

Song of Myself, 1882 text; the line follows “I exist as I am, that is enough,” which already exists separately in this collection.

Song of Myself, 1882 text; the line belongs to Whitman’s intentionally expansive, bodily-spiritual poetic voice and should be read as poetry rather than literal theological doctrine.

Song of Myself, 1882 Leaves of Grass text on Wikisource; the source continues “and none shall be less familiar than the rest.”

Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, “The Kingship of Self-Control.” Project Gutenberg #51469. The line belongs to late-nineteenth-century self-mastery literature and is not evidence that circumstance is irrelevant.

Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, opening essay. Jordan’s language is philosophical and motivational, with period assumptions about agency that should not be substituted for modern psychological evidence.

The Power of Truth, “People Who Live in Air-Castles.” The line is a present-action argument within conduct-of-life writing, not a literal denial of memory, planning or future obligations.