The term “respectable” in this ancient book, obviously has a somewhat different meaning than it does today. Today, someone who cheats, lies, and does just about anything to satisfy his greed is considered respectable, a hero, someone to be looked up to and imitated if he make a lot of money doing it(think Donald Trump). In this case though, respectable is referring to something on a more spiritual level. This type of respect isn't something you can buy or steal or finagle your way into with smooth talk and trickery. As the second part of the quote says, you must in fact rid yourself of jealousy, hatred, greed and other negative emotions to achieve it. You have to rid yourself of the belief that what you desire is more important than what others want and need. You have to free yourself from the egotistical concept that how you achieve your goals doesn't matter as long as you get what you want.

    A good place to start is in recognizing that we are all connected and what each of us does affects everyone else and everything else. This is not just a philosophical concept, but a scientific fact as proven by the modern science of quantum mechanics. But, as easy as it is to say, it is not so easy to do. It takes practice and we can start by thinking about the possible side effects of each major decision we make. Not every tiny decision like which shirt to wear today, as that would take too much time and most of us wouldn't be able to understand all the effects such decisions have anyway. But at night, when we are laying in bed, we should take a few minutes to think over our behavior of the day. Did we do things that we shouldn't have? Did we say things mean and harmful to, or about, others? And consider what affect the things we did will have on others. If we can do that, we are well on our way to becoming “respectable” in the sense that it is meant in the above quote.