I respect everyone, from the homeless brother and sister on the

“I respect everyone, from the homeless brother and sister on the street to the executive that sits in the highest office named President Barack Obama. I respect everyone — but we over-respect no one.” Thus spoke Mo’Nique, a voice of strength and authenticity, whose words carry the clarity of moral balance and the fire of human dignity. In this saying, she reminds us of a truth that even the wise of old have struggled to master — that true respect is universal, but worship of power is the root of corruption. For respect is born from recognizing the shared soul within all beings, but over-respect — that trembling reverence for status — is a form of forgetting who we are.

When Mo’Nique says, “I respect everyone,” she speaks from the ground of equality, not hierarchy. Her respect flows like sunlight — it shines upon the homeless and the mighty, upon the unseen and the celebrated, with the same warmth. This is not sentiment, but philosophy — an echo of the great spiritual laws that declare all souls to be sacred. Yet her warning, “we over-respect no one,” cuts just as deep. For when we elevate one person too high, we lower ourselves; when we kneel before power, we betray the divine spark within us that was never meant to bow to flesh. To respect all is divine; to idolize any is to return to chains.

This wisdom runs through history like a golden thread. In the ancient world, Diogenes of Sinope, the philosopher of the streets, lived with nothing but his cloak and his courage. When Alexander the Great came to see him — the ruler of the known world, surrounded by servants and soldiers — Diogenes did not kneel. He did not flatter. He merely said, “Stand aside, you are blocking my sunlight.” In that moment, the king and the beggar stood as equals — one powerful in possessions, the other powerful in freedom. Alexander, awed by his boldness, declared, “If I were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes.” So too does Mo’Nique remind us that the poor man’s worth and the rich man’s pride are illusions before the eternal truth of humanity.

The origin of Mo’Nique’s words springs from her life — a life lived amid fame, struggle, and the constant testing of integrity. As an artist who rose from humble beginnings to win the highest honors, she has seen both the adoration of crowds and the coldness of power. Her message is not that we should reject leaders or those in high places, but that we should remember no crown makes a man greater than another, and no failure makes a soul less divine. Respect must be equal, or it is not respect at all. When she speaks of honoring a homeless man as much as a president, she calls us back to the center of our shared humanity — to that sacred space where compassion, not hierarchy, governs the heart.

In every age, the people have erred by over-respecting the powerful. They have built idols of gold, thrones of marble, and empires of fear, only to learn that power without humility collapses into dust. The Romans worshiped their emperors as gods, but those emperors bled like any other man. The pharaohs of Egypt proclaimed themselves divine, yet time buried them beneath the same sands that covered the poor. The wise have always known — and Mo’Nique reminds us now — that status is not sanctity, and the truest respect is given not to crowns or titles, but to the humanity that resides in each beating heart.

This teaching demands not pride, but balance. To respect everyone is to walk with grace — to see the janitor as worthy of kindness, the artist as worthy of admiration, the leader as worthy of accountability. To over-respect no one is to keep one’s freedom — to admire without worship, to follow without blindness, to speak truth even to those we love or fear. It is to remember that no matter how high a man stands, he still stands on the same earth as those who sleep beneath bridges. And no matter how low one falls, he still carries the breath of the divine within him.

So, my children, let this wisdom be written upon your hearts: Respect all, but bow to none. When you meet the poor, see not pity but kinship; when you meet the powerful, see not superiority but duty. Let your respect be like the ocean — vast, fair, and level to all shores. For the measure of your greatness is not in how you treat those above you, but in how you treat those below.

And when the world tempts you to over-respect — to flatter, to fear, to forget yourself — remember Mo’Nique’s words: “We over-respect no one.” For dignity cannot live where idolatry begins. Walk humbly, love fiercely, honor everyone, and never surrender the truth that all stand equal before the eternal light.