humility Quotes

“I have been wandering to find him and my happiness is so great that it even weakens me like a wound. And this is the marvel of marvels, that he called me Beloved, me who am but as a dog.”

“You must practice seeing yourself with a little distance, cultivating the ability to get out of your own head. Detachment is a sort of natural ego antidote. It’s easy to be emotionally invested and infatuated with your own work. Any and every narcissist can do that. What is rare is not raw talent, skill, or even confidence, but humility, diligence, and self-awareness.”

“Jim said that bees won’t sting idiots, but I didn’t believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn’t sting me.”

“Who was everything, yet was naught.”

“Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. To think we have it is sure evidence that we don’t.”

“To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is: ‘He leads the way, keep close to him.’”

“Nothing is more deceitful…than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.”

“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it;— this is knowledge.”

The true friend from war is the friend who obliterates his own story by telling the stories of others.

“And then, incredibly, Betsie began to pray for the Germans up there in the planes, caught in the fist of the giant evil loose in Germany.”

“So much of how we act and what we do is based on humility or pride - that’s everything. And when you can humble yourself, you know, we are more like Christ when we can humble ourselves.”

″‘You act like I think I’m some big shot,’ Kendra said, ‘I think you’re projecting. I know I’m just a girl. Without the help of all the fairies I would have died last summer.’ ‘False humility is more insulting than open pride!’ the fairy sniffed.”

“There comes a time when you’re losing a fight that it just doesn’t make sense to keep on fighting. It’s not that you’re being a quitter, it’s just that you’ve got the sense to know when enough is enough.”

“Healthy shame is the psychological foundation of humility. It is the source of spirituality.”

“Real humility lies in self-forgetfulness. Few want to hear this but it’s true, and it can be enormously helpful in life: if you are constantly being hurt, offended, or angered, you should honestly evaluate your inflamed ego.”

“We should forfeit our right to be offended. That means forfeiting our right to hold on to anger. When we do this, we’ll be making a sacrifice that’s very pleasing to God. It strikes at our very pride. It forces us not only to think about humility, but to actually be humble.”

“The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution...”

“I did not pray for any relief, but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility and love.”

“That we should establish ourselves in a sense of GOD’s Presence, by continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit His conversation, to think of trifles and fooleries.”

“With humility may I reap my own power, and at the end of the journey, I hope I learn when to stand small so others can feel tall.”

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

“I know myself a mortal, and my share In what the morrow brings no more than thine.”

“But it is often those who have least of all in this life whom He chooseth for the kingdom. Put thy trust in Him and no matter what befalls thee here, He will make all right hereafter.”

“Like a good servant, Job counted the will of his Lord his great possession, by obedience to which his soul was enriched; nor did it grieve him to lose, while yet living, those goods which he must shortly leave at his death.”

“Power is okay, and stupidity is usually harmless. Power and stupidity together are dangerous.”

I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.

“In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him.”

“There’s not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.”

“For too long we have allowed apathy to masquerade itself as humility. There is nothing humble about living apathetic lives. In the same way, we cannot live lives of passion without unlocking our greatness.”

“Greatness is not the absence of humility; it is the absence of apathy.”

“Labor not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglects the present moment, throws away all that he hath. As the arrow passes through the heart, will the warrior knew not that it was coming; so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it.”

“The humility of a warrior is not the same humility as that of a servile man. The warrior does not lower his head to anyone, and nor does he allow anyone to bow before him. The servile man, on the other hand, kneels before anyone he believes to be more powerful, and demands that the people under his command behave in a similar fashion before him.”

″‘My good Horse, you’ve lost nothing but your self-conceit. No, no, cousin. Don’t put back your ears and shake your mane at me. If you are really so humbled as you sounded a minute ago, you must learn to listen to sense. You’re not quite the great Horse you had come to think, from living among poor dumb horses. Of course you were braver and cleverer than them. You could hardly help being that. It doesn’t follow that you’ll be anyone very special in Narnia. But as long as you know you’re nobody special, you’ll be a very decent sort of Horse, on the whole.‘”

“I refused to become a princess but adopted the titles of Court Linguist and Cook’s Helper. I also refused to stay at home when Char traveled, and learned every language and dialect that came our way.”

“We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker’s, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. The guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ: if we have repented these early sins we should remember the price of our forgiveness and be humble.”

“Let the strong and mighty laugh at men like me: let us, the weak and the poor, confess our sins to you.”

“Wilbur was modest; fame did not spoil him.”

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”

“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”

“I’m scared of stuff so nice. I ain’t got faith. I’m scared somepin ain’t so nice about it.”

“Be modest, be humble, be simple. Make sure you come in first so that you have something to be humble about.”

He was a simple man who had no inferiority complex about his lack of education, and even more amazing no superiority complex because he had succeeded despite that lack.

People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all. I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed

“He was satisfied with his wealth, but not proud of it; and piqued himself upon the hearty abundance, rather than the style in which he lived.”

“Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”

“A prince, therefore, ought always to take counsel.”

“The creature’s illusion of sufficiency must, for the creature’s sake, be shattered […] And this illusion of sufficiency may be at its strongest in some very honest, kindly, and temperate people, and on such people, therefore, misfortune must fall.”

“A certain amount of desperation is usually necessary before we’re ready for God.”

“O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.”

“Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.”

“But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we /must/ stand fast a little --even at the risk of being heroes.”

“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.”

“Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith.”

“For a hundred francs a year, she did the cooking and the housework, she sewed, washed and ironed, she could bridle a horse, fatten the poultry and churn the butter, and she was unfailingly loyal to her mistress, even though the latter was not a pleasant person.”

″[. . . H]e proposed marriage. She did not believe him at first, but he swore solemnly that he meant it.”

“I’m whining in retrospect. At the time, I never whined. Not once. I was the picture of humility and gratitude.”

“But the man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less cocksure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable Mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.”

“I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.”

“Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself;”

“It’s a universal law– intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”

“We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day “Thy will be done.” We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions.”

“A wise man is not showy about his wisdom; he guards it carefully. He is silent when he comes to a stranger’s home. The wise man seldom wanders into harm, for you can never have a more faithful friend than a good supply of wisdom.”

“He gave them four dollars and all the cherries they could carry. ‘That is too much,’ said Henry.”

“With these advantages their popularity as a body was very great- and it is only due to them to say that they bore their honours magnanimously, and distributed their kicks and favours with the strictest impartiality.”

“Mother and Father both say we should be proud of achievement. They say it’s an inbred fault of the English to underestimate themselves. Their favourite sin is ‘pride that apes humility.‘”

“...the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.”

“The truly gospel-humble person is a self-forgetful person whose ego is just like his or her toes. It just works. It does not draw attention to itself. The toes just work; the ego just works. Neither draws attention to itself.”

“One who believes may not be presumptuous; on the contrary, truth leads to humility, because believers know that, rather than ourselves possessing truth, it is truth that embraces and possesses us.”

“Amaryllis, the proud and aloof, had one solitary relative at last, but one to cause her pride to fall.”

“The first degree of humility is prompt obedience.”

“The first step towards humility is to keep the fear of God in mind at all times.”

“Scientific thinking favors humility over pride, doubt over certainty, curiosity over closure.”

“Love means an interior and spiritual identification with one’s brother, so that he is not regarded as an “object” to “which” one “does good.” The fact is that good done to another as to an object is of little or no spiritual value. Love takes one’s neighbour as one’s other self, and loves him with all the immense humility and discretion and reserve and reverence without which no one can presume to enter into the sanctuary of another’s subjectivity.”

“If we are humble, we are open to new ideas and new ways of seeing things. Open-mindedness is a very important part of humility. We don’t know it all. There is still more we can learn. And maybe even more important, some we need to unlearn.”