By becoming aware of his purpose, a person thereby recognizes his dignity. And only a religious person can become aware of his purpose.
A king asked a holy man: “Do you think about me?” The holy man replied: “I do, whenever I forget about God.”
— Saadi
We honor God every time we feel our neighbor’s life as our own.
— Giuseppe Mazzini
Nothing characterizes a person better than how he treats fools.
— Amiel
If we relieve ourselves of the obligation of being respectful to a person on the basis that he is foolish, stupid or incorrigible, then there will be no limit to how far our disrespect for others would sink.
It is time for the human being to recognize his own worth. For, after all, is he really some illegitimate creature? Does it become him to hide and timidly glance around? No, let me keep my head up high. Life was not given me for show, but for me to live it. I recognize my duty to tell the truth, the honest truth at every crossroads. I must concern myself not with people’s opinion of me, but with my true purpose.
— Emerson
The freedom of the individual is the greatest of tasks; it is upon it and it alone that the freedom of the nation can grow. A human being must respect his own freedom, and he must honor it no less than that of his neighbor, no less than that of the people as a whole.
— Herzen
Only the one who recognizes himself as a spiritual being can see his own dignity and the dignity of others, and only such a person will not humiliate himself or his neighbor with a deed or a situation unworthy of a human being.
