c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
In reverent pauses, when we slow down and think about the gift of life, we may briefly touch humility.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
The subtle whispers, cues and nudges are there as guideposts, to gently carry the humble listener along the path back to the source and the true self.
— Bryant McGill
[Soetsu Yanagi's] main criticism of individual craftsmen and modern artists is that they are overproud of their individualism. I think I am right in saying Yanagi's belief was that the good artist of craftsman has no personal pride because in his soul he knows that any prowess he shows is evidence of that Other Power. Therefore what Yanagi says is 'Take heed of the humble
—  be what you are by birthright
Humility is a virtue that one can find, in which God in heaven rejoices ,and in His love he enfolds you, close to his heart He does bind.
— Henrietta Newton Martin
Humility is patient because it is neither past nor forward seeking — it is content.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
Surrender is not a weakness, but rather an empowering state of humility.
— Bryant McGill
I believe a man’s finest hour often comes when he is at his weakest. When he is broken, affronted and at a place of great emotional transparency. It’s there he has the rare insight of an inescapable truth…he’s merely a man. As his bravado washes away into a puddle of reflective tears, it reveals that he is merely flesh, blood and bones and amounts to very little without the love and guidance of our creator. It’s only then, that I believe, a man begins to truly find his way.
— Jason Versey, A Walk with Prudence
Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment instead. It is such a willingness to live with bewilderment that characterizes the true wise man.
— Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation
You don’t want modesty, you want humility. Humility comes from inside out. It says someone was here before me and I’m here because I’ve been paid for. I have something to do and I will do that because I’m paying for someone else who has yet to come.
— Maya Angelou
The assumption that we are infallible can we justify the suppression of opinions we think false. Ages are as fallible as individuals, every age having held many opinions which subsequent ages have deemed not only false but absurd.
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility. You soon detect mock humility.
— Dwight L. Moody
If I turn mine eyes upon myself, I find myself a traitor with the rest;
— William Shakespeare, Richard II
Think less of yourself and more of others…and others will think more of you. ~Jason Versey
— Jason Versey, A Walk with Prudence
What if she'd sought God's Word for her pain? What if she'd resolved to forgive Rees for hurting her and trusted God to work that forgiveness out in her heart, so that she would have arrived in London with an attitude of humility and trust in God to lead her to the right person?
— Axtell Ruth
Ability to laugh at evil, to relativize symbols without dismissing them is usually a sign of a rather healthy person. Puritans and reformers can never laugh.
— Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation
I feels sorrier for him than anybody I knows. I expect he done read more books than any white man in this town. He done read more books and he done worried about more things. He full of books and worrying. He done lost God and turned his back on religion. His troubles come down just to that.
— Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्।स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः॥॥३- ३५॥`Better one’s own duty, be it humble,Than that of another – else you’ll stumble,Better to risk death at the post of duty,Than perils of intrusion on others surely.’3. 35
— Munindra Misra, Bhagwat Gita - Its Essence
Who among us is greater? True humility and servant leadership is a rare and elusive attribute these days however the greatest example of this spirit is beautifully documented in John 13, verses 3-5 “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” Just moments before this humble undertaking His disciples were arguing with each other about who among them was greater. This simple but powerful example of strength in humility should be our pattern in how we treat and consider others. Regardless of our stature, our positions in our communities and within our own families, true greatness begins and ends with a servant’s heart and a humble spirit. I submit to you, the greatest among us are those who are willing to put others before themselves. ~Jason Versey
— Jason Versey, A Walk with Prudence
It was easier to be the headstrong monk, a boy on a long-shot mission, before he actually won anything. With the prize in hand, he realized his single-minded drive came across as aloof cockiness; his painful martyrdom certainly looked like self-nomination for sainthood. He's not sure he can keep up this exhausting, aw-shucks façade for much longer.
— Ron Suskind, A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League
The peacock's plumage is its enemy: O many the king who hath been slain by his magnificence!
— Maulana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts.
— H.L. Mencken, Minority Report
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.
— T.S. Eliot
Right words make all of us feel falsely important. Right action keeps all of us forever beginners.
— Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation
. . . the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, praised most, while the crank, misfits and malcontents praised least.
— C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
Great leaders are the first to say, “I was wrong. Let’s make a change.
— Beth Ramsay, #Networking is people looking for people looking for people
There’s nothing more insufferable than people who boast about their own humility
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
I hope we can inaugurate a new humility in our use of religious language, which for me is the very proof that it is authentic.
— Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation
For the Javanese...the purpose of knowledge (kaweruh) is love, not ambition or cleverness. Knowledge comes from caring enough to suffer and learn.
— Therese Walsh, The Last Will of Moira Leahy
Humility is not just thinking less of yourself or thinking lanyard less of your gifts than others,It is freedom from thinking of yourself at all
— Barbara Cueto
If I have learned one thing in the years of my existence, one nugget of wisdom from having lived in the midst of disputations over faith and the nature of the world, it is that everything ends. This is both the blessing and the punishment of God upon the foolish tribe that calls itself man. We can embrace the end or we can weep, but the ghost of time closes all doors with a finality that can never be gainsaid.
— Kamran Pasha, Mother of the Believers
Humility is not thinking less of myself, but thinking about myself less.
— Anonymous
Be humble and set the balls of your dreams rolling till God himself decides what next! As for "pride", allow it to go as a lone ranger!
— Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes
Humility and Trustworthiness are not rooted only in Presentation, Voice modulation or Nice Jorganbut in Actions and Intentions that speak louder than you do and they last longer
— Venkat Gandhi
Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor. Perhaps, in a way, that's where humanity is now: about to discover we're not as smart as we thought we were, will be forced by life to surrender our attacks and defenses which avail us of nothing, and finally break through into the collective beauty of who we really
— Marianne Williamson
Pride is not the opposite of shame, but it's source. True humility is the only antidote to shame.
— General Iroh
Never miss an opportunity to be truly and deeply humiliated! The shame will carve you down to an individual of exquisite layering, and in the process, etch within you the arcs of exceptional narrative.
— Ashim Shanker, Sinew of the Social Species
We have no need to learn to think much of ourselves, to care for ourselves, to consider our own needs, wants, and desires. We already do that far too much. The problem is getting us to think of others, to have a lowliness of mind that springs from humility and love.
— Nancy   Wilson, Building Her House: Commonsensical Wisdom for Christian Women
'Tragedy admires man. Comedy feels a bit sorry for him.' We think we are kings or queens, masters of the universe or at least our own destiny. We forget that a foot may crush us, or that the wind may knock us down. We are not in control. We are subject to gas and sloughing skin and dirty pores. Most of our joints will eventually fail us. We have big brains which we can imagine great things, but we can't really get off the ground. It's like we have wings but we can't fly.
— Debbie Blue, Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible
Cheerfulness means a contented spirit, a pure heart, a kind and loving disposition; it means humility and ~ charity, a generous appreciation of others, and a modest opinion of self.
— William Makepeace Thackeray
Pride is a human nature and it's good for people to be proud of themselves, achievements, etc. but too much of anything is not healthy. Humble is pride exhibited through humility, so be humble and prideful about being humble.
— Uzoma Nnadi
Have a heart which does not trample down simplicity and humility.
— Angelica Hopes
We all have the same Christ dwelling within, but revelation of some new need will lead us spontaneously to trust Him to live out His life in in that particular.
— Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life
What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us
—  it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God.
True humility is being able to accept criticisms as graciously as we accept compliments.
— Sabrina Newby
I laboured hard at my book, without allowing it to interfere with the punctual discharge of my newspaper duties; and it came out and was very successful. I was not stunned by the praise which sounded in my ears, notwithstanding that I was keenly alive to it, and thought better of my own performance, I have little doubt, than anybody else did. It has always been in my observation of human nature, that a man who has any good reason to believe in himself never flourishes himself before the faces of other people in order that they may believe in him. For this reason, I retained my modesty in very self-respect; and the more praise I got, the more I tried to deserve.
— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Curious that a man as selfish as he should be offering himself to the service of dead dogs. There must be other, more productive ways of giving oneself to the world, or to an idea of the world... But there are other people to do these things - the animal welfare thing, the social rehabilitation thing, even the Byron thing. He saves the honour of corpses because there is no one else stupid enough to do it.
— J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
Humble is pride exhibited through humility.
— Uzoma Nnadi
Writers who think THEY are being criticized when only that writing is being criticized are beyond a teacher's reach. Writing can only be learned when a writer coldly separates himself from what he has written and looks at it with the objectivity of a plumber examining a newly piped bathroom to see if he got all the joints tight.
— William Zinsser
PARAPHRASE: Genius is not that you are smarter than everyone else. It is that you are ready to receive the inspiration.
— Albert Einstein
I will never have greater respect than for the man that realizes he was wrong and graciously admits it without a single excuse.
— Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing
Shamed and enraged, I sit by the side of the road and cry.Eclipsed by a sense of disgrace, my emotions feel momentarily stifled and disconnected. Instead of anger, I feel dishonored and exposed. I cannot even formulate my thoughts, much less speak them. My integrity and humility have been violated. I have only my own indignation to spur me on.
— Holly A. Smith, Fire of the Five Hearts: A Memoir of Treating Incest
Being a fool for God was not merely alright but liberating.
— Joy Davidman
Give me the lowest place: not that I dareAsk for that lowest place, but Thou hast diedThat I might live and shareThy glory by Thy side.Give me the lowest place: of if for meThat lowest place too high, make one more lowWhere I may sit and seeMy God and love Thee so.
— Christina Rossetti, Complete Poems
Humble me so I do what is right. Break me so I cling to You. Expose me so my motives stay pure.
— Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening
[T]he more man accepts his limitations, the better is he enabled to know things truly.
— Rousas John Rushdoony, Exodus: Commentaries on the Pentateuch
True humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself exactly the way God thinks of you
—  not more and not less.
There won't be any biographies of me, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken farm do not make for exciting copy.
— Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor
If you can grasp those two truths—you are made in His image and dependent on Him—you will discover a great dignity and at the same time a profound humility.
— Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life
I might paraphrase Churchill and say: never have I received so much for so little.[Exemplifying humility, upon accepting the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.]
— Luis Federico Leloir
It was a lot more fun to get famous than to be famous.
— Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927
There is too wide a gap, for most of us, between what we say and what we mean. Between our words and our thoughts. The first thing the Prophet Isaiah said when he saw the living and exalted God was, “Woe is me, I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Isaiah was one of the most godly men who ever walked the earth. But seeing God, he sees also, abrupt and stark and grief-making, his own duplicity. Then God does what only God can do: he sears his lips clean (Isaiah 6:6-7). And herein lies our hope: truly seeing God, we truly see ourselves, in all our woe-begotten duplicity; but crying out to God, we are truly and greatly helped.
— Mark Buchanan
Deeply convinced of the reality of the divine will, he (Lincoln) had no patience at all with any who were perfectly sure they knew the details of the divine will.
— Elton Trueblood, Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership
A major element in Lincoln's greatness was the way in which he could hold a strong moral position without the usual accompaniment of self-righteousness.
— Elton Trueblood, Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership
I have always consoled myself that he such as I who is not a genius, can still achieve much that is useful when he does his work right and chooses his work to suit his talents.
— Johann Rudolf Wolf
The author describes megalomania as seen in Chairman Mao by saying that what he was familiar with, he was really familiar with. This zeal moved the megalomaniac with a complete lack of appreciation for what he DID NOT know.
— David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
Sometimes the best virtue learned on the battlefield is modesty.
— David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
Men and women believed and proclaimed God was firmly on their side – and easy and shallow assertion that reduced God to a sort of house deity.
— Gustav Niebuhr
Fresh from the rarefied environments of Harvard, the author says he purposefully took journalism jobs in small southern towns so that he could learn the art of conversation with ordinary people. Is this gift for listening and for conversation, it seems, that allowed him to produce textured historical narratives of grand impact.
— David Halberstam
I often think we should have tattooed on the back of whatever hand we use to shoot or write, 'I might be wrong.
— Louise Penny, A Fatal Grace
People with disabilities are sometimes very humble and approachable, if you want a seasoned reputation, then behave like one of the handicaps.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
Years later, after other experiences with dogs, I wondered if their species were shaped and charmed to serve as four-legged guides able to assist in leading humanity back to our first—and lost—home. By the example of their joy and humility, by wanting nothing more than food and play and love, by the deep satisfaction that they take from those humble things, they belie all creeds of power and fame. Although they have the teeth to tear, it is by swish of tail and yearning eyes that they most easily get what they want.
— Dean Koontz, Innocence
You will only learn in a fight how much you've got to learn.
— Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley
Not ordinarily do men achieve this balance of opposites. The idealists are not usually realistic, and the realists are not usually idealistic. The militant are not generally known to be passive, nor the passive to be militant. Seldom are the humble self-assertive, or the self assertive humble. ...truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis that reconciles the two.
— Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home.
— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Real Humility is when I can treat a minister, a prince, a priest, a teacher, a waiter and a janitor with the same and equal respect.
— Jeroninio Almeida, Karma Kurry for the Mind, Body, Heart & Soul
It's better to find success through God, than finding it on one's own merits; some who usually find their own success become boastful, where through God it's with gratitude.
— Anthony Liccione
Sizing up succinctly his lack of formal education compared with his determination to learn from others, the author writes, "I went to college with every person I ever met.
— Chris Gardner
A man should not glory in what he already knows but in what he has yet to learn.
— Robert Stephen Parry, Virgin And The Crab: Sketches, Fables And Mysteries From The Early Life Of John Dee And Elizabeth Tudor
Heaven-gates are not so highly arched As princes' palaces
—  they that enter there Must go upon their knees.
Our mind cannot be without fear and our head cannot be held high when we become slaves to materialistic values , always wondering why my car is not bigger and better than my neighbours car and in that process forget our human values like dignity, humility , integrity and humanity.
— Jeroninio Almeida, Karma Kurry for the Mind, Body, Heart & Soul
The minute you think you have the right to belittle others because you think you’re better than them is the same minute you’ve proven you’re worse.
— Joanne Crisner Alcayaga, Amazed: A Girl’s Infinite Pursuit to Grasp the Essence of Humanity in Writing
True humility is a kind of self-annihilation
—  and this is the centre of all virtues.
If you ask an Irishman for directions, he might be quick to answer, Well if I were going there, I would not start here.
— Steve Stockman
Appearances, beauty, value and life have their unique mysteries and essence. I prefer that essence to be breathing with humility, honesty, compassion, respect and a timeless love.
— Angelica Hopes
When people give me a compliment, I just look back and smile, as I am just a glimpse of both my father's. Both earthly and heavenly.
— Silas Packianathan
You can become the greatest personality in your community by developing the sagacity of humility, teachability, prosperity-mentality and accountability.
— Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
Self-consciousness isn't just A curse. It is part of THE curse.
— Mark Batterson, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars
It hurt to think that a boy would not have him at his value of himself.
— Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley
If you can't let go of the power you possess, if you can't surrender it gracefully when it is time to do so, you will most likely abuse it.
— Donald Cozzens, Notes from the Underground: The Spiritual Journal of a Secular Priest
There is a humility about genuine love that is rather horrible in some ways.
— George Orwell
Insecurity was never humility
—  just as arrogance was never success.
The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness.
— Carlos Castenada
No matter how great you ‘think’ you are or how successful you've become. Never forget those who have lifted you up. Never forget life's experiences, both good and bad which have shaped you as a person. You've had help climbing the rungs of life's ladder. And, those rungs can break at anytime, sending you back down to a place of humility, to remind you of where you came from and how you rose to the top….
— James A. Murphy, The Waves of Life Quotes and Daily Meditations
There is no inconsistency when God raises up those who have fallen prostrate.
— John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols
What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition and settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.
— G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Peace can only be achieved by a contrite spirit, open communication and tolerance.
— Shannon L. Alder
Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ and author of the Four Spiritual Laws chose three words for his tombstone: "slave for Jesus".
— Kyle Idleman, Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus
College was to teach me that I was one of life's journeymen, eager to excel but lacking the requisite gifts.
— Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides
The Lord has put more hardships atop the shoulders of my neighbors — more than I can even fathom coping with. I will strive to find a way to turn pity into admiration, for what use is it to send pity back at the world. Admiration and awe are much more helpful, especially when I find myself feeling like a victim for being stuck in traffic or losing my favorite sweater. Perspective is a blessing.
— Erica Goros, The Daisy Chain
All of yesterday's ballers are today's road sweepers.
— Habeeb Akande
Modesty has, and will remain, an alluring trait because where egoism falters, humility conquers.
— Andy Paula
If you will only consider, you will remember many a person of whom the world never heard and will never hear, whose years have been as full of generosity, loyalty to duty, faith in God, fidelity to every day's work, as those of Franklin or Garfield, Lincoln or Emerson. They, also, have put their hands to the plough and have not looked back. Having made up their minds to what ought to be done, they did not hesitate, did not procrastinate, did not worry or grow anxious, but faithfully performed the duty of the hour. They had faith in Providence, and so did with their might what their hands found to do. They gave, and it was given to them again, "full measure, pressed down and running over." They did good, hoping for nothing again, and the reward came in lives full of content; in cheerfulness, peace, and satisfaction.
— James Clarke, Every-Day Religion
It is beautiful in a picture to wash the disciples’ feet
—  but the sands of the real desert have no lustre in them to compensate for the servile nature of the occupation.
False humility is better than no humility at all.
— Paul Krassner
The author points out strikingly different reactions to calamity. While many passengers of a devastating shipwreck were thankful to be alive, future presidential assassin Charles Guiteau saw his being spared as proof of his exceptionalism rather than of the grace from which he benefited.
— Candice Millard, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
In my own book-signings, I find humility. It’s always humbling when people go out of their way to come visit with me and by some of my books.
— Nicholas Trandahl
Ripples of karmic events are best humbly done in an artistic, significant, unique karmic harvests without any forms of retaliation.
— Angelica Hopes
The flame of testimony burns brightly when fed with the oil of grace.
— H.A. Ironside
A smile is a humble hidden treasure everyman has been endowed with that does not reveal itself until it is called for.
— Seyi Ayoola
Always remember, no matter how big you get in life, God is still bigger; when you feel to be at your lowest point, Satan is still at the bottom.
— Anthony Liccione
If change and growth are not programmed into your spirituality, if there are not serious warnings about the blinding nature of fear and fanaticism, your religion will always end up worshiping the status quo and protecting your present ego position and personal advantage as if it were God.
— Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.
— Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
There is a world of difference between being clever and being right.
— Ian Driscoll
Intellectual modesty is humility as to what I know
—  intellectual humility is modesty as to what I do not know
Imitate Jesus and Socrates
— Benjamin Franklin
If you lack the humility to go back and tie up the loose ends in your past, then be prepared to forever be haunted by her ghosts, all of whom will come into your present and your future— staining everything and everyone with their leftover emotional and mental garbage. Humility is the master key that can get you out of all your cages; why do you choose your ego and stay in your prisons?
— C. JoyBell C.
The Marquesa would even have been astonished to learn that her letters were very good, for such authors live always in the noble weather of their own minds and those productions which seem remarkable to us are little better than a day's routine to them.
— Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Humility makes a man richer than other men, and it makes a man judge himself the poorest among men.
— Thomas Brooks
There are no souls in the world that are so fearful to judge others as those that do most judge themselves, nor so careful to make a righteous judgment of men or things as those that are most careful to judge themselves.
— Thomas Brooks
Often it takes outer authority to send us on the path to our own inner authority.
— Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Humility can weep over other men's weaknesses, and joy and rejoice over their graces.
— Thomas Brooks
We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in danger of seeing philosophers who doubt the law of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own. Scoffers of old time were too proud to be convinced
—  but these are too humble to be convinced.
Don't kill the game with your 'funk', elevate it with your humility.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
The narrator finds that as a maturing character grows in stature before her friends that she sees less stature while evaluating herself.
— Zane Grey, The Call of the Canyon
If the opposite of certainty is doubt, humility must lie somewhere between the two,
— Ron Suskind, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President
Life's a short trip. You'll find out.
— Rodney Dangerfield, It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs
The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on - I am not too sure.
— H.L. Mencken
Certainly all virtues are very dear to God, but humility pleases Him above all the others, and it seems that He can refuse it nothing.
— Francis de Sales
Humility consists in not esteeming ourselves above other men, and in not seeking to be esteemed above them.
— Francis de Sales
Confident and courageous leaders have no problems pointing out their own weaknesses and ignorance.
— Thom S. Rainer
What each man is in Your eyes, thus he is, and no more.
— Francis of Assisi
Let us make our way through these low valleys of the humble and little virtues. We shall see in them the roses amid the thorns, charity that shows its beauty among interior and exterior afflictions, the lilies of purity.
— Francis de Sales
Part of what makes him (laid-back Tim Hudson)an ace is that he would never acknowledge that he is an ace.
— Joe Simpson
People who have trouble questioning their own country often have trouble admitting fault in themselves, both of which come from insecurity and lack of humility.
— Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason
For with any recovery from morbidity there must go a certain healthy humiliation. There comes a certain point in such conditions when only three things are possible: first a perpetuation of Satanic pride, secondly tears, and third laughter.
— G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare
A man who can own pearls does not bother about shells, and those who aspire to virtue do not trouble themselves over honors.
— Francis de Sales
If after all your efforts you cannot succeed, you could not please our Lord more than by sacrificing to Him your will, and remaining in tranquility, humility, and devotion, entirely conformed and submissive to His divine will and good pleasure.
— Francis de Sales
The man who does good in doubt must have so much more merit than one who does it in the bright certainty of belief. "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold..." A warning against the smugness of inherited faith.
— Morris West, The Devil's Advocate
The King of Glory does not reward His servants according to the dignity of their office, but according to the humility and love with which they have exercised it.
— Francis de Sales
What kind of ministry is that, just talking to people?" Criticism directed at Francis Schaeffer's plan to open an obscure spot in the Swiss Alps to those who came with questions.
— Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity
Don’t settle for helping those who will help you in return or doing a good deed for others to see. Help others without expecting anything back. Even if nobody else cares, God will notice.
— Dillon Burroughs
Little deeds that proceed from charity please God and have their place among meritorious acts.
— Francis de Sales
Other priests, he knew, found an intense pleasure in the raw, salty dialect of peasant conversation. They picked up pearls of wisdom and experience over a farmhouse table or a cup of wine in a workingman's kitchen. They talked with equal familiarity to the rough-tongued whores of Trastevere and the polished signori of Parioli. They enjoyed the ribald humor of the fish market as much as the wit of a Cardinal's dinner table. They were good priests too, and they did much good for their people, with a singular satisfaction to themselves.
— Morris West, The Devil's Advocate
The applause of the audience is short-lived. When calls resound for an encore, we are called to direct our attention to our Master.
— Dillon Burroughs, Thirst No More: A One-Year Devotional Journey
Thou shalt wear trousers, but they shall fall half down to teach humility over arrogance.
— Jay Woodman
Those who wish to stand tallest must kneel lowest.
— Dillon Burroughs, Thirst No More: A One-Year Devotional Journey
Humility is not just declaring that you are not God. It is deciding daily to not be God.
— Darrin Patrick
In humility, we find our true calling and our greatest honor.
— Dillon Burroughs, Thirst No More: A One-Year Devotional Journey
We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness towards our fellow Christians. Bitter-spirited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature. Those who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet very immature in heart. He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more; he overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it. ... I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves qualified to reform the whole Christian church. We drag her before us, and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature, I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons Vol. 1-10
If we can't accept what we don't know, there really is no hope.
— Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Only God is in a position to look down upon someone.
— Habeeb Akande
Let them hear your voice so rarely that a simply-uttered word creates a hush of expectancy in the room.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway
All true friendliness begins with fire and food and drink and the recognition of rain or frost. ...Each human soul has in a sense to enact for itself the gigantic humility of the Incarnation. Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.
— G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World
Having all the answers just means you've been asking boring questions.
— Joey Comeau
It is sort of weird being honored for the worst day of your life.
— Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Never mistake arrogance for intellect.
— D.B. Harrop
you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.
— H. Ross Perot
How quickly self rises to the surface, and the instrument is ready to believe he is something more than an instrument! How sadly easy it is to make of the very service God entrusts us with a pedestal on which to display ourselves. But God will not share His glory with another, and therefore does He "hide" those who may be tempted to take some of it unto themselves. It is only by retiring from public view and getting alone with God that we can learn our own nothingness.
— Arthur W. Pink, Elijah
Don't underestimate the poor, because his soul treasures to Phoenix of Wits
— Válgame, Poemas y canciones para el mal de amores Volumen1
In the ancient world, this was understood by the Christians, our only (if very imperfect) predecessors: Humility is a virtue, pride a vice; We comes from God, I from the Devil.
— Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
What should you, O man, do, you who seek your own glory whenever you do anything good, while when you do something bad, you figure out ways to blame God.
— Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the Gospel of John 1-40
Although secular fundamentalist “progressives” might believe in a future “golden age,” such an age does not exist. The future that they herald is merely one of gathering gloom and ever darkening clouds. This fate has ever been so for those who proclaim their “Pride.” They have nothing to expect in the future but their fall.As for the Christian, he has nothing to fear but his falling into the pride of despair. If he avoids becoming despondent and retains his humility, he will receive the gift of hope which is its fruit. Where there is hope there is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
— Joseph Pearce
Had I been placed among those nations which are said to live still in the sweet freedom of nature's first laws, I assure you I should very gladly have portrayed myself here entire and wholly naked.Thus, reader, I am myself the matter of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and vain a subject.
— Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Works
The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatest greatness is.
— Phillip Brooks
The Patriots had picked Brady in the sixth round, and he soon turned out to be one of the two or three best quarterbacks in the League, and absolutely perfect for the Belichick system and for the team's offense. So, as the team continued to make a series of very good calls on other player personnel choices, there was a general tendency to talk about how brilliant Pioli and Belichick were, and to regard Pioli as the best young player personnel man in the League. Just to remind himself not to believe all the hype and that he could readily have screwed up on that draft, Pioli kept on his desk a photo of Brady, along with a photo of the team's fifth-round traft choice, the man he had taken ahead of Brady: Dave Stachelski. He was a Tight End from Boise State who never a played a down for New England. Stachelski was taken with the 141st pick, Brady with the 199th one. 'If I was so smart,' Pioli liked to say, 'I wouldn't have risked an entire round of the draft in picking Brady.
— David Halberstam, The Education of a Coach
With a little more patience and a little less temper, a gentler and wiser method might be found in almost every case; and the knot that we cut by some fine heady quarrel-scene in private life, or, in public affairs, by some denunciatory act against what we are pleased to call our neighbour's vices might yet have been unwoven by the hand of sympathy.
— Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon
Humility is so shy. If you begin talking about it, it leaves.
— Timothy J. Keller
Then you do not belong here. Death holds no sweetness in this house. We are not warriors, nor soldiers, nor swaggering bravos puffed up with pride. We do not kill to serve some lord, to fatten our purses, to stroke our vanity. We never give the gift to please ourselves. Nor do we choose the ones we kill. We are but servants of the God of Many Faces.""Valar dohaeris." All men must serve."You know the words, but you are too proud to serve. A servant must be humble and obedient.""I obey. I can be humbler than anyone."That made him chuckle. "You will be the very goddess of humility, I am sure. But can you pay the price?""What price?""The price is you. The price is all you have and all you ever hope to have. We took your eyes and gave them back. Next we will take your ears, and you will walk in silence. You will give us your legs and crawl. You will be no one's daughter, no one's wife, no one's mother. Your name will be a lie, and the very face you wear will not be your own.
— George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.
— Frank Lloyd Wright
Some people would rather die in their pride, than live in their humility.
— Anthony Liccione
A child's cry touches a father's heart, and our King is the Father of his people. If we can do no more than cry it will bring omnipotence to our aid. A cry is the native language of a spiritually needy soul; it has done with fine phrases and long orations, and it takes to sobs and moans; and so, indeed, it grasps the most potent of all weapons, for heaven always yields to such artillery.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Spurgeon's Classic Work on the Psalms
Two classes of people make up the world: those who have found God, and those who are looking for Him - thirsting, hungering, seeking! And the great sinners came closer to Him than the proud intellectuals! Pride swells and inflates the ego; gross sinners are depressed, deflated and empty. They, therefore, have room for God. God prefers a loving sinner to a loveless 'saint'. Love can be trained; pride cannot. The man who thinks that he knows will rarely find truth; the man who knows he is a miserable, unhappy sinner, like the woman at the well, is closer to peace, joy and salvation than he knows.
— Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ
While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas
One of the greatest lesson is humility. Humility is like oxygen to the soul. You won’t get too far without it!
— Dina Rolle, Adversities & Triumphs in the Midst of It All
After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser.
— Benjamin Franklin
The objection to an aristocracy is that it is a priesthood without a god.
— G.K. Chesterton, Saint Francis of Assisi
This is not just "our" world.
— Mario Stinger, Destined for Oblivion: As Nature Intended
Vanity breeds insanity
—  humility leads to utility.
Management" of anything as complicated as a woods requires more humility than comes easily to our species, at least in its American incarnation.
— Bill McKibben, Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape: Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks
Tim Tebow's Dad turned a screw-up into a testimony when a fire to burn weeds in a field got out of control. With his family still smelling like smoke from containing the fire, he conducted a lesson from verses where James compares danger of speech to an out-of-control spark.
— Tim Tebow, Through My Eyes: A Quarterback's Journey: Young Reader's Edition
He was one of those men, and they are not the commonest, of whom we can know the best only by following them away from the marketplace, the platform, and the pulpit, entering with them into their own homes, hearing the voice with which they speak to the young and aged about their own hearthstone, and witnessing their thoughtful care for the everyday wants of everyday companions, who take all their kindness as a matter of course, and not as a subject for panegyric.
— George Eliot, Adam Bede
No one is charismatic. Someone becomes charismatic in history, socially. The question for me is once again the problem of humility. If the leader discovers that he is becoming charismatic not because of his or her qualities but because mainly he or she is being able to express the expectations of a great mass of people, then he or she is much more of a translator of the aspirations and dreams of the people, instead of being the creator of the dreams. In expressing the dreams, he or she is recreating these dreams. If he or she is humble, I think that the danger of power would diminish.
— Myles Horton, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change
He is the kind of person I should expect to rescue one from a mad dog at any risk but then insist on a stoical indifference to the fright afterward." Jefferson Davis's future wife describing him at first meeting.
— Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville
By and large, the mission of any ghost is to offer humility. They point out what's important by mocking what is not.(Joshua Malina, Sports Night)
— Aaron Sorkin
The 'HIGHway' to peace is humility!
— Evinda Lepins, Back to Single
It is only people who are lacking, or bad, or inferior, who have to be good at things. You have always been full and perfect, so you had nothing to make up for.
— T.H. White, The Once and Future King
true humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others
—  the rest is either shyness or good marketing
Ingratitude produces pride while gratitude produces humility.
— Orrin Woodward
To confess your fallibility and then do nothing about it is not humble
—  it is boasting of your modesty.
Any honours that come our way are only stolen from him to whom alone they really belong, the Lord who sent us.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
True humility means giving joy to others.
— Sri Chinmoy, My Life's Soul-Journey: Daily Meditations for Ever-Increasing Spiritual Fulfillment
There too he had been treated with revolting injustice. His struggles, his privations,his hard work to raise himself in the social scale, hadfilled him with such an exalted conviction of his merits that it was extremely difficult for the world to treat him with justice— the standard of that notion depending so much upon the patience of the individual. The Professor had genius, but lacked the great social virtue of resignation.
— Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degreeOf blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
— Alexander Pope
... no sensitive Christian can be satisfied with a distinction between righteousness and unrighteousness drawn only between communities, with each individual belonging unambiguously on one or the other side of the line. The behavior of "the righteous" is often very disappointing, while "the unrighteous" regularly perform in a manner that is much better than our theology might lead us to expect of them. Thus the need for a perspective that allows for both a rather slow process of sanctification in the Christian life and some sort of divine restraint on the power of sin in the unbelieving community. These theological adjustments to a religious perspective that might otherwise betray strong Manichean tones provide us with yet another reason for openness to a broad-ranging dialogue: Christians have good grounds for believing that their own weakness can be corrected by encountering the strengths of others.
— Richard J. Mouw, Pluralisms And Horizons: An Essay In Christian Public Philosophy
I get it, you know. I'm operating on privilege too. It may be a number of notches down from yours but it's every bit as unearned. I think the trick is to never forget it.
— Sabrina Vourvoulias
The essence of humility in Step 3 is acknowledging and accepting our dependence on God. The essence of faith is trusting God. – p. 167
— Ray A., Practice These Principles: Living the Spiritual Disciplines and Virtues in 12-Step Recovery to Achieve Spiritual Growth, Character Development, and Emotional Sobriety
His enthusiasm and willingness to use what he learned made him get ahead in Spanish.
— Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot
His way was like other people's; he mounted no high horse; he was justa man and a citizen. He indulged in no Socratic irony. But hisdiscourse was full of Attic grace; those who heard it went away neitherdisgusted by servility, nor repelled by ill-tempered censure, but onthe contrary lifted out of themselves by charity, and encouraged tomore orderly, contented, hopeful lives.
— Arthur Quiller-Couch
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not
—  nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not
I love those who can smile in trouble...
— Leonardo da Vinci
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and -- if at all possible -- speak a few sensible words.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.
— Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead