I want to write a short quote to hang up on my wall.
It is about respecting yourself and never finding excuses or allowing yourself to slack. In other words, to properly take care of yourself and not ridicule it (in every literal and metaphorical way).
How can this kind of self-respect be best translated in Japanese?
I believe [不敬]{ふけい} or [軽蔑]{けいべつ} do not correctly capture the meaning I am looking for in this case.
Maybe 堕落 .
We do say:
We don't say:
Example:
Not to be confused with 脱落 .
Here's why...
Your question is:
Which is the best way to translate "disrespect" in this context?
So you want a Japanese word which expresses the state of disrespecting (i.e. not complying to) your values. That means, we must begin by translating the state of going against your values: "finding excuses and allowing oneself to slack".
If I focus on the "finding excuses" part, I can't think of a word that describes such state, except for the straightforward 言い訳する人 (person who finds excuses). Focusing on "allowing himself to slack" gave me the word 怠け者 (lazy person).
Combining the two, we at least get 言い訳するな、怠け者になるな (No excuses, don't be a slacker) but that's not really creative and doesn't answer you question so let's dig deeper.
What happens when you find excuses and slack off? You lower your value. Use case can be 己の価値を下げるな (don't lower your (my) value).
What happens when you lower your value? You lower yourself down to a point expressed in Japanese as 堕落 (corrupt, degraded, etc.). This may allow the "state of disrespecting oneself until a point one has reached its lower limit" to be translated as 堕落した状態。
I hope the above answered the question partially, if not completely. Next, on to your purpose:
I want to write a short quote to hang up on my wall.
There's always a 4-kanji set for anything (四字熟語). I have gathered some examples that possibly depict the "disrespectful state" you wish to express. Apparently simple search didn't yield translations and synonyms so I have provided simple translations.
They sound like an awesome life, but are basically used in a negative manner, kind of like the seven sins.
堕落 is a great answer! How would you convert it into a verb? Would 堕落する work?
What about something like 自分【じぶん】に誇【ほこ】りを持【も】て！ or even the simpler 誇【ほこ】りを持【も】て！ ?
This translates to "have pride in yourself" or "have pride".
This quote from Miyamoto Musashi fits this bill very well. I having been living by this for the past few months:
身【み】を捨【す】てても名利【みょうり】は捨【す】てず
It is frequently translated as, "You may abandon your body, but you must preserve your honor."
Perhaps a more literal translation would be, "Even if you throw away your body, do not throw away your honor."
Breakdown: 身【み】を Body + (Indicator of direct subject or otherwise recipient of verb)
捨【す】てて Throwing away, abandoning, leaving, deserting, resigning
も Also, too, even if
名利【みょうり】は Fame and fortune (lit. name + benefit/profit) + (topic marker)
捨【す】てず Not throwing away, not abandoning, etc.
If you are looking to stray shortly from your path, I am not a native speaker, but, I would go with 軽蔑【けいべつ】.
Don't ever disrespect yourself.