#dignity

[F]rom my years of understanding ... I happily chose this kind of life in which I yet live [i.e., unmarried], which I assure you for my own part hath hitherto best contented myself and I trust hath been most acceptable to God. From the which if either ambition of high estate offered to me in marriage by the pleasure and appointment of my prince ... or if the eschewing of the danger of my enemies or the avoiding of the peril of death ... could have drawn or dissuaded me from this kind of life, I had not now remained in this estate wherein you see me. But so constant have I always continued in this determination ... yet is it most true that at this day I stand free from any other meaning that either I have had in times past or have at this present. ↗

— Elizabeth I Tudor

#choice #contentment #dignity #empowerment #freedom

[A]s though mindful of the wife of Lot, who looked back from behind him, thou deliveredst me first to the sacred garments and monastic profession before thou gavest thyself to God. And for that in this one thing thou shouldst have had little trust in me I vehemently grieved and was ashamed. For I (God [knows]) would without hesitation precede or follow thee to the Vulcanian fires according to thy word. For not with me was my heart, but with thee. But now, more than ever, if it be not with thee, it is nowhere. For without thee it cannot anywhere exist. ↗

— Héloïse d'Argenteuil

#celibacy #convent #dignity #following #grief

Well, that is what you risk when you fall in love. You risk losing your dignity. ↗

— J.M. Coetzee

#love #risk #love

Son, a real battlefield lacks dignity and honor. When lives are being spent—actual human lives—those high-minded concepts lose their meaning. All that matters is victory. If you have blades, you’ll use blades. If you have rocks, you’ll use rocks. If there’s nothing but sand, you’ll throw the damn sand. A true war is only waged when men don’t want to live to see what failure looks like. You do what it takes to win. You go wherever necessity takes you. ↗

— B. Justin Shier

#failure #honor #victory #war #men

I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said 'I want to be let alone!' There is all the difference. ↗

— Greta Garbo

#freedom #privacy #respect #solitude #freedom

There ain't anything worth doing a man can do and keep his dignity. Can you figure out a single thing you really please-God like to do you can do and keep your dignity? The human frame just ain't built that way. ↗

— Robert Penn Warren

#perception #pride #men

I wouldn't go out of my way to experience the indignity of middle-age just because it might be good meat for a story. ↗

— Roddy Doyle

#experience #go #good #i #indignity

I want to work on respecting individuals' dignity. Equal rights, that's where my heart is. That means equal rights and benefits, and that's what we need. ↗

— Christine Gregoire

#benefits #dignity #equal #equal rights #heart

I'm a black American, I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride and dignity. ↗

— Michael Jackson

#american #black #dignity #i #i am

I had been thinking for a while about how bored and tired I was of playing straight-down-the-middle everymanish characters that have what I call white guy problems. And I missed playing characters who lacked dignity and more importantly, lacked social skills. ↗

— Justin Long

#been #bored #call #characters #dignity