Self-esteem is an egotistical quality, self-respect a social one. Self-esteem imposes obligation on others, that they treat one as if one were of supreme importance, far more important than anyone else; self-respect imposes obligations on oneself, for example that one behaves with decency and controls oneself for the convenience of others, even in the most difficult circumstances.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Living for Kicks
Read Theodore Dalrymple's essay Living for kicks: the ugly face of Britain. A sample: