You can respect only someone who is better than you. It's as simple as that. Respect is acknowledgement of someone's superiority. Not necessarily as a person in general, but due to some achievements, or show of strength. Whatever it might be, you accept you are lower in the rank and you accept the other's superiority. And there is nothing wrong with knowing where you belong and where you stand in the world.
@RegalBeagle if someone is as good as you at the same task(for the sake of clarity), you can respect them for it, knowing what it took to get on that level. if someone is better than you at the same task, you can respect them for it, knowing what it means to put in more work to master it than you did. but you cannot respect someone that is worse at the same task as you are. because you know they still have a long way to walk to get where you are. either way it is about hierarchy.