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The wise treat self-respect as non-negotiable, and will not trade it for health or wealth or anything else.

— Thomas Szasz The Second Sin (1973)

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More quotes by Thomas Szasz

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.

The Second Sin (1973)

In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.

The Manufacture of Madness (1970)

Since this is the age of science, not religion, psychiatrists are our rabbis, heroin is our pork, and the addict is the unclean person.

The Second Sin (1973)

The language of science—and especially of a science of man—is, necessarily, anti-individualistic, and hence a threat to human freedom and dignity.

Anti-Freud (1990)

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

The Second Sin (1973)

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Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.

John Herschel A Toolbox for Humanity : More Than 9000 Years of Thought (2004)

Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival.

Martha Gellhorn Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir (1978)

If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Insulted and the Injured (1861)

Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and conscience, your heart and your soul. So only can you be true to God.

Theodore Parker Two Sermons (1853)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Szasz (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.