I'm not too sure what is meant by "nature of experiences and universal principles", but developing self-respect is quite important. To understand that at least we are trying to develop ourselves. We may fall short of our ideals, however at least we are trying to develop these beneficial qualities in ourselves, and to lessen the causes of Dukkha. Understanding that we are putting in the effort helps us to develop a sense of respect towards ourselves, that we are trying to keep to good principles in our life. Reflecting on our good Morality helps and reflecting on all of our good Kamma helps in developing more self-respect. It helps to remember those times when we were able to overcome some of these very strong tendencies in ourselves that caused ourselves Dukkha and Dukkha for others.
Looking back and seeing the progress helps to develop more self-respect and understanding that it came a lot through effort and putting in the practice to see these results. Truthfulness is very important, because without truthfulness we haven't got Right View, because many times when unbeneficial qualities arise in ourselves, there may be the tendency to put the blame on others for these problems. Therefore we are not practicing in line with the Four Noble Truths, especially the first two. So being truthful to ourselves is a very important step in letting go of our Dukkha, and Truthfulness to ourselves is very close to Compassion to ourselves. Because not being truthful to ourselves and trying to avoid our responsibility won't allow us to get to the cause and the ending of these problems within ourselves.
Truthfulness is a very important Parami: Truthfulness to ourselves, Truthfulness to our principles. This is a quality, a Parami that helps us to keep to our principles, not just keeping to them when they are convenient for us, but also when it is difficult for us to keep to them. We need to remember our principles and our direction, being truthful to ourselves and not thinking, "Okay, this time it's not convenient, I'll try again later". But try to keep to our principles, keeping truthful to our direction, truthful to our principles, truthful about our responsibility towards Dukkha and the cause of it, truthfulness towards others so that they trust us, rather than not trusting us. Sometimes people are not truthful to others because they are afraid of the blame or the unpleasant feelings at that time, but then they cause themselves a bigger problem later, because people do not trust them, and that is more Dukkha for oneself. So Truthfulness comes very close to having Compassion to ourselves, because without Truthfulness, how can we reach the truth?