The Importance of Self-Respect

Lincoln said:  “I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every friend on earth, I shall have at least one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.”

What others think of you is not as important as what you think of yourself, for others might be deceived by appearances or by cunning, deceitful language, but your real estimate of yourself is a pretty accurate one.  The great human plan is built upon truth lines, honesty lines, and you cannot think well of yourself if you are not a good man; if you are not square, clean and true.

There is no man so lonely in this world as the one who has lost his self-respect, even though he has the applause of the world.  He knows he is playing false, that he is wearing a mask, and that while he may deceive everybody else he can never deceive himself into thinking that he is a good man when he is not.

The great object of a watch is perfect time.  The real meaning of a human being is manhood.  What you do in this world should mean something infinitely larger and grander than mere living, or what is represented by your bank account.  These are mere incidentals to the larger meaning of life.  Your life work is the exhibition you make before the world.  The world does not care so much what particular line of endeavor you follow as that you be a man.

Every mean, contemptible, dishonest act takes away confidence in yourself, because you condemn yourself for it; and in order to do the best thing possible to you, you must have your own unqualified approval.

Do you stand for integrity?  Have you been square in your dealings with others, generous in your treatment of them?  If you have been small, mean, uncharitable and contemptible in your life, you will get neither the world’s monument nor anybody’s gratitude.  The world builds no monuments to selfishness, erects no tablets to greed.

– Orison Swett Marden, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, Ill., January 31, 1919

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Tagged as: Purpose, Self-Respect