We may not realize it, but how we treat people says much about who we are. Beyond that, how well or not we treat others can influence their general perception, especially if we have some authority over them (as parents, teachers, employers, and leaders).
Treating people nicely and kindly, whether they are your “equals,” friends, or below your status, is one of the cheapest ways to spread positivity as a human being!
The following inspirational quotes remind me why respecting and treating others well is important. I hope you find them helpful, too.
Not sure you treat people right? You’ll find a simple one-question formula at the end of these quotes to help clear the confusion. Make sure you check it out!
How to Treat People Quotes: Actions Speaks Volumes
You can’t treat people right in words alone. Your behavior and attitude must match those words.
- “The most attractive thing about you should have less to do with your face or body and more to do with your attitude and how you treat people.” – Germany Kent
- “Treat others as you wish to be treated. Don’t just be nice, but be kind to other people. That can be so rewarding.” – Mary Lambert
- “I don’t want to be just known for the way I dress. I want to be known for how I play, how I treat people, and how I am as a role model. I don’t just want to be, ‘He dresses cool’ or ‘He dresses crazy.’” – Rickie Fowler
- “Judge a person not by how he treats you, but how he treats others. The former reflects what he wants you to think of him; the latter truly reflects who he is.” – Betty Jamie Chung
- “You cannot call a man a good person just because he is treating you good! He should treat everyone good to be good!” – Mehmet Murat ildan
- “Every time you mistreat someone, you reveal the part of you that lacks love and needs to heal.” – Kemi Sogunle
- “I like a man who looks like a bad boy but knows how to treat a woman like a queen.” – Candice Swanepoel
- “Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.” – Lou Holtz
- “My mother taught me to treat a lady respectfully.” – Chris Brown
- “Treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given.” – Hussein Nishah
- “Respect requires empathy, the capacity to anticipate and understand the feelings of others. It requires consideration.” – Deborah Norville
- “Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” – Og Mandino
- “If we have reverence for God, we will have respect for one another.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
- “If you cannot treat everyone with the same respect as you give to your pastor, then you are a fake person.” – Sunday Adelaja
- “Treat people how you want to be treated instead of how they treat you.” – Kristin Michelle Elizabeth
- “Many trains arrive at your station; treat them good whether they stay or leave!” – Mehmet Murat ildan
- “Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.” – Gamaliel Bailey
- “When I look at a person, I see a person – not a rank, not a class, not a title.” – Criss Jami
- “Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.” – Albert Einstein
- “If men are to respect each other for what they are, they must cease to respect each other for what they own.” – A. J. P. Taylor
- “‘I was wrong’ builds more respect than ‘I told you so.’” – Dan Rockwell
- “Only those who respect the personality of others can be of real use to them.” – Albert Schweitzer
- “Treat people not because of how you wish to be treated by them. Treat people truly from your heart.” ― Avisheena
- “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Desmond Tutu
- “It’s easier to treat people properly than to repair broken relationships.” – Frank Sonnenberg
How to Treat People Quotes: Treat People With Respect
Treat everyone with respect and human kindness, whether or not they see things from your perspective. Here are my favorite quotes about treating others with true respect.
- “To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.” – Bono
- “You don’t tell people who disagree with you they’d be better off somewhere else. And you don’t reduce them to stereotypes; you address them as fully formed people worthy of respect. You try to persuade them.” – Peggy Noonan
- “Most good relationships are built on mutual trust and respect.” – Mona Sutphen
- “Respect comes in two unchangeable steps: giving it and receiving it.” – Edmond Mbiaka
- “Do dirt, get dirt. So I treat people with the same respect that I want.” – DMX
- “Respect has nothing to do with who is right and who is wrong. It has to do with allowing space for someone else’s opinion.” – Jackie Viramontez
- “Respect is a two-way street. If you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.” – R. G. Risch
- “Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.” – Thomas Paine
- “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” – Bryant H. McGill
- “I have a saying ― ‘You treat me good, I’ll treat you better. You treat me bad; I’ll treat you worse. And when in doubt, knock ‘em out.’” – Chuck Zito
- “Tolerance implies a respect for another person, not because he is wrong or even because he is right, but because he is human.” – John Cogley
- “Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?” – Confucius
- “How we treat people is always our choice, and if we choose not to be respectful, it can come back to bite us.” – Alison Levine
- “We learned about gratitude and humility ― that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean… and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.” – Michelle Obama
How to Treat People Quotes: Treating Others Well Improves Self-Esteem
You are a worthy being! And so are others. Treat them well, regardless of their position, and you’ll have a whole chapter dedicated to you in their life’s story.
- “Respect begins with this attitude: I acknowledge that you are a creature of extreme worth.” – Gary Chapman
- “See the light in others, and treat them as if that is all you see.” – Wayne W. Dyer
- “We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “If you respect yourself, you will respect others.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
- “I’ve always said, if you treat yourself like a queen, you’ll attract a king.” – Pepa
- “Goodness is about character ― integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.” – Dennis Prager
- “I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.” – Anais Nin
- “The same way he treats animals and other vulnerable individuals is the same way he’ll relate to your feminine side.” – Nityananda Das
- “The real act of marriage takes place in the heart, not in the ballroom or church or synagogue. It’s a choice you make – not just on your wedding day, but over and over again ― and that choice is reflected in the way you treat your husband or wife.” – Barbara De Angelis
- “My ideal man is faithful, honest, and a gentleman who knows how to treat women.” – Irina Shayk
- “The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “The adolescent must never be treated as a child, for that is a stage of life that he has surpassed. It is better to treat an adolescent as if he had greater value than he actually shows than as if he had less and let him feel that his merits and self-respect are disregarded.” – Maria Montessori
- “Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a person as if he were where he could be and should be, and he will become what he could be and should be.” – Jimmy Johnson
- “A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
- “It’s racist to teach children to treat other children differently because of their skin color.” – Marjorie Taylor Greene
- “Discrimination, no matter how small, is wrong. Support of discrimination no matter who does it is wrong. ” – Germany Kent
- “We all have a responsibility to try and make this world better, whether it’s through our work, the causes we champion, the way that we treat people, or the values we impart to the next generation.” – Daniel Lubetzky
- “Be the girl you want your daughter to be. Be the girl you want your son to date. Be classy, be smart, be real, but most importantly be nice.” – Germany Kent
- “When you take care of yourself, you’re a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better.” – Solange Knowles
How to Treat People Quotes: For Leaders and Business Owners
How you treat your employees will determine whether they consider you a boss or leader. If you’re in any leadership position, the following quotes will help improve your leader-employee relationship and ultimately grow your business.
- “Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees, and the rest follows from that.” – Herb Kelleher
- “My approach is that you have to earn the respect of people you work with.” – Mark Pincus
- “Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.” – Barbara Bush
- “The way management treats associates is exactly how the associates will treat the customers.” – Sam Walton
- “The best way to help your consumers with your business is to treat your employees right so they give better customer service, empower them so they can provide faster solutions, and treat your vendors and partners fairly and with respect so they can continually provide the best product and services to their ability.” – Kailin Gow
- “No business can stay in business without customers. How you treat – or mistreat – them determines how long your doors stay open.” – Harvey Mackay
- “In my early professional years, I was asking the question: How can I treat, cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?” – Carl Rogers
- “Trust men, and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Start each day asking, ‘How do I want others to feel?’ Then act accordingly.” – Jill Telford
