I’m always amused as to how often those who clamor for respect do not show it in kind to those from whom they demand it. I have ways of dealing with it, though. Because it amuses me, a selection of quotes on respect:

There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect.”

– Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. 23

I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

– Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.

– Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to William Carmichael and Wiliam Short, 30 June 1793

Il n’existe que trois êtres respectables: le prêtre, le guerrier, le poète. Savoir, tuer, et créer.

– Charles Baudelaire, Mon Coeur Mis à Nu [1887], XV