What are the qualities of people who have earned your respect?

Answer 1

This is an important question for me. I really liked Vilynblackthorne's answer, but this would not be all that I would require to truly respect someone.

I would require this respected person to be honest, loyal and not egotistical. Words are cheap, so let's see what their actions would be. They must also treat people as fairly as possible, be compassionate, but not allow themselves to be used and abused. They need to be skilled at deflecting people's negative emotions, words and actions in such a way that it does as little harm as possible to everyone involved. They must respect themselves and not use their own openness to control others.

Now that I've said all that, I doubt very much if I could ever live up to those expectations enough to respect myself sufficiently. It is only a goal. I wonder if Vilynblackthorne could claim to meet those criteria as well.

Life is so difficult in our complicated and hollow society, where you have no set idea of who you are supposed to be. When you have a constant living reminder that you'll never live up to someone's expectations (which are entirely different from your own) it makes it difficult to function in a unified and harmonious way. It might be your husband, wife, partner, parent or friends who are constantly trying to put you into the same old box - of your previous self and their previous relationship with you. Almost no one is willing to give you a chance to improve yourself, to change things or to even consider the possibility. That's why you tend to live up to people's expectations. It's very harmful in my case, and I find myself taking all kinds of negative defensive actions and reactions, in relation to some (though not all) of the people who are supposed to be close to me.
In spite of all this, I am optimistic. If you play a musical instrument like the piano and neglect it for a few weeks, you can "unlearn" all kinds of bad habits, and then improve your technique and interpretation of the music. The important part here is not to reinforce negative patterns, in yourself or anyone else.

Answer 2

By Respecting Me As A Person! Being Honest!

Answer 3

no one in my life really has earn my respect people who never give up even though people around him are sure he can't do it. Also people that are friendly that even though they know they are gonna win they don't get carried away. My respect so far is only by one person who has gone so far without asking anything in return giving away so many stuff to me but never ask for anything. A true person

Answer 4

no one has EVER EVER EVER earned my respect.. the qualities i look for are loyalty, strength of TRUE character not just pompousness and pretense. I hate, i deplore, i abhor ego. I revere true sincerity and honesty, i want to find someone who truly truly respects life as the solemn blessing of nature but there is none to found anywhere, everyone lets you down in the end and I want nothing to do with falseness and pretense

Answer 5

i don't want to sound all full of my self but there are not many people in this society that have earned my respect except for the fact that i respect life, most people are to judgmental and jump at the chance to kick some one who is already down, and have no commen sense at all.

Answer 6

Honesty Decency loyalty and most important of all sincerity.Cant be doing with false people or the ones who tell you what they think you want to hear. Mostly I respect nice people who are genuine

Answer 7

Niceness.

As ironic as it might sound, I find it funny that there are very few nice people around.

When I meet new people, I'd always observe how they behave/interact with service staff.

I detest people who act like Kings & Queens when they are around service staff.

That to me reeks of total snobbery and I simply can't stand that. Money doesn't necessarily make the world go round. NICENESS does.

Answer 8

They are honest, loyal, respectful and hard working. They are open minded and non judgemental. I also have a great deal of respect for those who stand up for what they believe in.

Answer 9

Those who are mutually considerate and communally conscientious, not just as a spoken philosophy or religious claim or political lobby or economic objective, but the ones who are this way in all they do... in humble interrelationship with and within all that surrounds...I know of few...and it seems they are fewer and fewer with each passing day.

Answer 10

Truthfulness