- Author: joan didion
- Link: https://www.vogue.com/article/joan-didion-self-respect-essay-1961 https://www.vogue.com/article/joan-didion-self-respect-essay-1961
Summary
Self-respect is knowing the price of things and being able to say no without drowning in self-reproach. It frees us from the expectations of others and gives us full access to ourselves. “a private reconciliation”
People with self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. They know the price of things.
that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the spectre of something as small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that one's sanity becomes an object of speculation among one's acquaintances. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves—there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect
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