Those who have sunk out of all honest ways of living into poverty and wretchedness are not always eager to put themselves into the harness of honest labour and respectability.
"The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I"
Marcus Dods
The atmosphere-an atmosphere, one would think, of fairly ordinary respectability-had not till then come their way.
"The Furnace"
Rose Macaulay
Even the minor inequalities in the ranks of the working class are not without their use in quickening their exertions to maintain the standard of respectability which they have won or inherited.
"Contemporary Socialism"
John Rae