The phrase "Those who respect others will always respect them" means: those who respect others will also be respected by others. Therefore, respect and understanding are mutual. If you respect others first, others will respect you.
"Those who respect others will always be respected by others" comes from "Mencius: Chapter 2 of Li Lou". Let me share the original text below:
Mencius said: "The reason why a gentleman is different from others is because he respects others." The intention is that a gentleman loves others with kindness and respects others. If someone treats others with respect, he will always be respected. On the contrary: "I must be unkind and rude. Is this a good thing to ridicule?" It is self-reflecting on benevolence, and it is self-reliant on courtesy. This is why a gentleman must be self-reliant: "I must be unfaithful." "Since he is loyal, he is rebellious. The gentleman said: "This is also a deceitful person. If this is the case, how can it be difficult to choose against the beasts? 'So the gentleman has a lifetime of worries. The trouble is that if you worry about it: Shun is a human being; I am also a human being. Shun taught the world and can be passed down to future generations; I am a native of the country, so I can worry about it. How? Just like Shun. If a gentleman is in trouble, he will perish. If he is in trouble, he will not be in trouble. Take a look at the translation of ↓ here.
Mencius said: "The reason why gentlemen can be distinguished from ordinary people is by the thoughts they have in their hearts. Gentlemen keep benevolence in their hearts and etiquette in their hearts. People who have benevolence in their hearts love others. , People who adhere to etiquette respect others. People who are friendly to others will always be friendly to them; people who respect others will always respect them. For example, if there is a person here who treats me in a cruel and unreasonable manner, then a gentleman will definitely do it. Self-reflection: 'I must not be kind enough, I must have said and done things that are not in line with etiquette. Why did this happen?' A gentleman has determined through self-reflection that he is benevolent, and that his words and deeds are in line with etiquette. If the person's cruelty and unreasonableness remains unchanged, then the gentleman will definitely reflect on himself: "I must not be doing my best to treat others." After self-reflection, he is sure that he has tried his best, but the person's cruelty and unreasonableness has not changed, and the gentleman will say. : 'This is just an unreasonable and misbehaving person. How is he different from an animal? What can he blame the animals for? 'Therefore, a gentleman has things to worry about in his life, but there are no sudden worries. . As for the things that gentlemen worry about: Shun is a human being, and I am also a human being. If Shun can become a model for the world and can be passed down to future generations, I am still a layman who should worry about these things. What to do? Just be like Shun. As for the things that are not benevolent, do not do things that are not in line with the law. Even if there are sudden worries, the gentleman will not worry.
I can’t help but share some personal insights after reading:
The core meaning of Mencius’s words is that a gentleman should cultivate his benevolence throughout his life and cultivate his habit of observing etiquette and law. , treat others and things with all your heart. Mencius believed that if you behave in this way, you can gain the love and respect of others.
However, in the process of interacting with others, people will inevitably encounter villains, especially arrogant and unreasonable people. At this time, people often doubt their own principles of life. Shouldn't they always treat others with kindness and courtesy? Mencius's answer is: When encountering such a situation, you first need to reflect on yourself to see if there is anything you can't do well. If after introspection, it is confirmed that the problem is not your own, then you can conclude that the other party does not understand the truth at all, and there is no need to tangle with such unreasonable beasts.
The "lifelong worry" mentioned by Mencius means that a gentleman always pays attention to his own moral cultivation throughout his life. What Mencius said about "the worry of one day" roughly refers to a mentality of worrying about gains and losses. In daily life, we worry about gains and losses in everything we encounter. Mencius believed that this was because we did not focus on higher goals in life.
When a person always pays attention to the improvement of his own cultivation and pursues the life state of a sage, he will no longer be troubled by the trivial things in front of him.
In this chapter, Mencius assumes that the delusional person is an objective existence in society, and the delusional person will pose a great challenge to the belief in the goodness of human nature. The basic characteristics of delusional people are that they are unreasonable, like gangster logic, and are superstitious about violence. Although Mencius classified delinquents into beasts in terms of language, they still exist in society as humans and will become popular and powerful figures in certain historical periods. This is probably a problem that Mencius' moral power cannot solve at all.