"Treat others as you would like to be treated" is perhaps the best philosophy ever. Yay to Judaism for first enunciating it. In other words, respect is the most important concept in dealing with other people.

ETA: Since there is a bit of confusion about what I'm saying here, I don't mean treating people the same as I'd like to be treated. Ick! :-)

I tend to see Kant's Categorical Imperative "Treat others as an end in themselves, and never merely as a mean to your end" as somewhat better at expressing the "treat others with respect" because it, despite being wordy and slightly jargonistic, conveys better that the aim is to treat people with a view to respecting their goals, wants and needs, rather than assuming that they share yours.

But in both cases, the lesson is that one should not treat others as mere objects, but rather as persons, and that is a good thing to keep in mind.