Respectability is a curse, an ‘evil’ that corrodes the mind and heart.
It creeps upon one unknowingly and destroys love.
To be respectable is to feel successful, to carve for oneself
a position in the world, to build around oneself a wall of certainty,
of that assurance which comes with money, power, success, capacity or virtue.
This exclusiveness of assurance breeds hatred and antagonism in human relationship, which is society.
The respectable are always the cream of society, and so they are ever the cause of strife and misery.
The respectable, like the despised, are always at the mercy of circumstances; the influences of environment
and the weight of tradition are vastly important to them, for these hide their inward poverty.
The respectable are on the defensive, fearful and suspicious. Fear is in their hearts, so anger is their righteousness; their virtue and piety are their defence.
They are as the drum, empty within but loud when beaten. The respectable can never be open to reality, for they are enclosed in the concern for their own self-improvement.
Happiness is denied to them, for they avoid truth.

—Krishnamurti

From Commentaries on Living Series 1
Art: Moebius