Daily Inspiration Quote by Gordon B. Hinckley

Self-respect, in Gordon B. Hinckley’s framing, isn’t a warm bath of self-esteem; it’s a moral ignition switch. As a late-20th-century religious leader speaking to a culture increasingly fluent in therapy language and consumer individuality, he repurposes the self as a starting point for duty rather than indulgence. The line works because it takes a concept often marketed as private and psychological and recasts it as public and ethical: you don’t honor yourself so you can feel better, you honor yourself so you can behave better.

The word “beginning” is doing quiet rhetorical heavy lifting. Hinckley isn’t claiming self-respect is virtue itself; he’s presenting it as the first rung on a ladder that leads outward. Subtext: people who don’t see themselves as worthy will struggle to keep promises, resist temptation, or show up for others. That’s pastoral realism, not platitude. It also guards against the opposite failure mode: performative virtue built on shame. If you despise yourself, morality becomes a punishment system, brittle and easily abandoned.

“Cultivating” is another deliberate choice. Virtue isn’t a switch you flip; it’s a practice you tend, with repetition, accountability, and community norms. The inclusive “men and women” signals a universal standard inside a faith tradition that often speaks in family-centered terms. Contextually, Hinckley is addressing modern pressures - fractured families, status anxiety, addictive habits - and offering a simple, portable root principle: dignity precedes discipline. The line’s power is its quiet insistence that morality starts not with fear of failing God or society, but with refusing to treat your own life as disposable.