pride Quotes

“It is deeply satisfying to win a prize in front of a lot of people.”

“You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow, she went on . . . Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything . . . Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!”

“I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.”

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”

“From the very beginning—from the first moment, I may almost say—of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish distain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of the disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world on whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.

It was how the face was acting—also studying the crowd. Fixed in concentration. Liesel felt herself pausing as she found the only face looking directly into the German spectators. It examined them with such purpose that people on either side of the book thief noticed and pointed him out.

“There are no words to contain all my wisdom. I am so cunning, crafty and clever, so filled with deceit, guile and chicanery, such a knave, so shrewd, cagey as well as calculating, as diabolical as I am vulpine, as tricky as I am untrustworthy…”

“I have the keenest mind that has ever been turned to unlawful pursuits . . . ”

“Beware of pride and arrogance, Charles, for they may betray you.”

No hunter of the sky should end his days as prey. Better to die on the wing than pinned to the ground.

″‘There are some upon this earth of yours,’ returned the Spirit, ‘who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.‘”

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. . . . Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now.”

Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me.

Where others have failed, I will not fail.

This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.

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

“Her love for him had been paltry and weak, easily crushed by her own pride.”

The proud heart feels not terror nor turns to run and it is his own courage that kills him.

“We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.”

“But hunger is pride’s master.”

Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride - where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.

I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.

“If there’s anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”

“In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion.”

“German youth, do not forget that you are a German.”

″...all men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”

“Oh, it is hard to give in! But it is worse to risk everything for stubborn pride.”

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

“We haven’t re-created the past here. The past is gone. It can never be re-created. What we’ve done is reconstruct the past—or at least a version of the past. And I’m saying we can make a better version.”

“Your doctor Wu does not even know the names of the things he is creating. He cannot be bothered with such details as what the thing is called, let alone what it is.”

“He became possessed of a great pride in himself, which communicated itself like a contagion to his physical being. It advertised itself in all his movements, was apparent in the play of every muscle, spoke plainly as speech in the way he carried himself.”

“Slavery, as we shall afterwards show, dishonors labor; it introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind, and benumbs the activity of man.”

“The men were congratulating one another, talking about what they had accomplished; trying to piece together the sequence of events. They were the victors, happy, proud, full of themselves.”

″‘Can you raise your back, or purr, or throw out sparks?’ said the tom cat. ‘No.’ ‘Then you have no right to express an opinion when sensible people are speaking.‘”

″‘How did you become a chicken in the first place?’ Seth asked. ‘Pride made me careless,’ Grandma said. ‘A sobering reminder that none of us are immune to the dangers here, even when we imagine we have the upper hand.‘”

“The Wolf strikes again!”

“He whom the flame of jealousy encompasseth, turneth at last, like the scorpion, the poisoned sting against himself.”

“Is not wounded vanity the mother of all tragedies? Where, however, pride is wounded, there there groweth up something better than pride.”

“Ye are only bridges: may higher ones pass over upon you! Ye signify steps: so do not upbraid him who ascendeth beyond you into HIS height!”

“It doesn’t seem far-fetched to speculate that because Hall had talked Hansen into coming back to Everest, it would have been especially hard for him to deny Hansen the summit a second time.”

“He said, ‘Ignorance and power and pride are a deadly mixture, you know’ ‘Sure are,’ I said. ‘Like matches in the hand of a three-year-old. Or automobiles in the hands of a sixteen-year-old. Or faith in God in the mind of a saint or a maniac. Or a nuclear arsenal in the hands of a movie character. Or even jumper cables and batteries in the hands of fools.‘”

“Hubris probably had something to do with it. Hall had become so adept at running climbers of all abilities up and down Everest that he got a little cocky, perhaps.”

“Apollyon looked down on Christian with eyes hooded with pride. ‘No prince worthy of his title releases his subjects easily, and I am no different. I am not ready to let you loose as yet; but since you have complained about your service and wages, let me encourage you to go back home. I personally promise that what our country can afford I will give you.’ Christian shook his head. ‘I can’t do that. You see, I have already yielded myself to another – even to the King of princes. How can I in all fairness go back with you?‘”

“Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.”

“But inside himself he was proud of the Wart for staying out after a hawk, and prouder still to see that he had got it.”

″‘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.”

“Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements.”

“Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title.”

“A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him.”

“There was no pain in their eyes and no knowledge of the agony of their body. There was only joy in them, and pride, a pride holier than it is fit for human pride to be.”

“Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.”

“A man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself.”

“Pausing, he set down his things and began throwing punches to warm himself up. Wow, he hadn’t realized how fast his right had gotten! His left was pretty good too. He was a machine!”

“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.”

“He would like to show his drawings to his dad, but he didn’t dare. When he was in first grade, he had told his dad that he wanted to be an artist when he grew up. He’d thought his dad would be pleased. He wasn’t.”

“Now the anger that arose in Wang Lung’s heart was an anger he had not known in al his life before, although as things had prospered with him and as men came to call him rich, he...had grown full of small sudden angers, and he was proud even in the town. But this anger now was the anger of one man against another man who steals away the loved woman, and when Wang Lung remembered that the other man was his own son, he was filled with a vomiting sickness.”

“There is enchantment in a uniform, especially one that marks the wearer as a person of rare skills, courage or achievement.”

“If she was proud of me, I was so proud of her that I carried my head high as I emerged from the dark cedars and shut the Cutters` gate softly behind me. Her warm, sweet face, her kind arms, and the true heart in her; she was, oh, she was still my Ántonia!”

“And besides – he’s so proud of being a man – it’d be so painful and humiliating for him to know that he owed anything to me. It’d completely wreck our relationship.”

“Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. ”

“When she got to be thirty and was still single, we were ... vindicated.”

“She carried her head high enough—even when we believed that she was fallen. ”

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”

“Nothing as basic, or as serious, as the possibility of an animal escaping. Wu found it offensive to think that anyone would believe him capable of contributing to a system where such a thing could happen.”

“With a little more heart, he might have been contented with this new conquest; but the principal features of his character were ambition and pride.”

“There are people who laugh at a horse that would not dare to laugh at the master of it...”

“You ought to be brave for two reasons- the first is that you are a Gascon, and the second is that you are my son. Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.”

″‘You! I’ve just awarded you the prize for the hundred-meter dash. Does it make you happy? […] No dodging, please. You have the prize — here, I’ll write it out: ‘Grand prize for the championship, one hundred-meter sprint.‘” He had actually come back to my seat and pinned it on my chest. ‘There! Are you happy? You value it — or don’t you?’ Mr. Dubois had looked surprised. ‘It doesn’t make you happy?’ ‘You know darn well I placed fourth!’ ‘Exactly! The prize for first place is worthless to you . . . because you haven’t earned it. But you enjoy a modest satisfaction in placing fourth; you earned it.‘”

“Av’rice, envy, pride, Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all On fire.”

“It is difficult to recognize pride as a sin when it is held up on every side as a virtue, urged as profitable, and rewarded as an achievement.”

“Fear is a hunter. But brave warriors, we brush away fear with a flick of the wrist. We laugh in the face of fear, kick it like a stone across the street.”

“Books! What have such as I, who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to do with books? I never read but in one, and the words that are written there are too simple and too plain to need much schooling...”

“we have more than ever the selfish wants of power the disregard for the weak the old the impoverished the helpless. we are replacing want with war salvation with slavery.”

“It was the Lunas who carried the charter from the Mexican government to settle the valley. That took courage.”

“The more unscrupulous I was, the greater my reputation was likely to be, for men are so blind that they even take pride in their blindness.”

“I hope one day I live in a world where the personal fight for mental stability is viewed with pride and public cheers instead of shame. I hope it for you too.”

“Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish, some of them, he thought. All a man had to do was keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone.”

“When I began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise, although he was thought wise by many, and still wiser by himself.”

“He was bound for the old claim on the left fork of Henderson Creek, where the boys were already. They had come over across the divide from the Indian Creek Country, while he had come the round-about way to take a look at the possibilities of getting out logs in the spring from the islands in the Yukon. ”

″‘See what a fine fisherman is my son! He will be a chief one of these days.’ Only Tavana Nui would be silent. His son had not gone.”

“Perhaps that was the beginning of it. Mafatu, the boy who had been christened Stout Heart by his proud father, was afraid of the sea.”

“It was obvious to everyone that Mafatu was useless upon the sea. He would never earn his proper place in the tribe. Stout Heart- how bitter the name must taste upon his father’s lips!”

“Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride, Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech, And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,-- These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birth Is fated for the regions of the vile.”

“Thus it is with proud silly people, who think themselves above everyone else, and are too proud to ask or take advice.”

“Miss Polly did not usually make hurried movements; she specially prided herself on her repose of manner.”

“Just because you are quiet doesn’t mean that you are without pride. Privately thinking you’re better than others is still pride. It’s still dangerous.”

“He wasn’t quite good enough for me.”

“How sweet to be able to disdain, when most of us are glad to say, ‘Thank you!’ I seem to hear it. ‘No sir- I’m your better.‘”

“Then Beren looking up beheld the eyes of Luthien, and his glance went also to the face of Melian; and it seemed to him that words were put into his mouth. Fear left him, and the pride of the eldest house of Men returned to him;”

“Actually, the real game of Bigger and Better that Jesus is playing with us usually isn’t about money or possessions or even our hopes. It’s about our pride. He asks if we’ll give up that thing we’re so proud of, that thing we believe causes us to matter in the eyes of the world, and give it up to follow Him. He’s asking us, ‘Will you take what you think defines you, leave it behind, and let Me define who you are instead?‘”

“I was, after all, Susanna English, and our family had never needed anyone’s help to gain entrance anywhere.”

“I didn’t feel sad or happy. I didn’t feel proud or ashamed. I only felt that in spite of all the things I’d done wrong, in getting myself here, I’d done right.”

″ It also is becoming obvious that those who avoid the painful encounter with the unseen are doomed to live a [prideful], boring, and superficial life.”

“From then on, I took an even greater pride in my work. I’d bring the most difficult locks home and time myself. Then I’d cut the time in half and practice until I got there. I’d keep at it until I couldn’t feel my fingers.”

″‘They think so much of themselves!’ said his mother. ‘Small creatures always do. The bantam is the proudest cock in my little yard.‘”

“[Pride and power] are the same except that pride leaves the lights on and power can do it in the dark.”

“In defense of her wounded pride he would have torn the offender to pieces with his own hands. And here that offender was he himself.”

“The burden of restoring the nation’s pride and prominence in the wake of the Paris exposition had fallen upon Chicago.”

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

“I watched him even then as he fell, his face undefeated, his eyes still proud.”

“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.”

“Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.”

“The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”

“My pride is hurt. And my pride is about all I’ve got left to me....You’re tearin’ my guts out, Claire.′

“Once I had three daughters. Tonight I am proud to have three daughters again.”

“My father is a Cannibal King; there aren’t many children with so fine a father!”

“Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were bursting with pride. It was a great responsibility taking care of so many ducklings, and it kept them very busy.”

“I’m a basic boneless chicken, yes, I have no bones inside, I’m without a trace of rib cage, yet I hold myself with pride.”

“An injured lion still wants to roar; It is about dignity and self esteem which isn’t quite the same as vanity.”

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about.”

“I, too, am a deity! I am a committed disciple of the arts of kung-fu and I have mastered the four major heavenly disciplines, prerequisites to immortality!”

“A scullery maid? Ridiculous. I was Matilda Cook, daughter of Lucille, granddaughter of Captain William Farnsworth Cook, of the Pennsylvania Fifth Regiment. I could read, write, and figure numbers faster than most. I was not afraid of hard work. I would set my own course.”

“I...took some pride in ‘not fulfilling my potential,’ in part because I was terrified that if I tried my hardest, the world would learn I didn’t actually have that much potential.”

“This ‘Monkey King’ it speaks of no longer exists, for I have mastered twelve major disciplines of kung-fu and transcended my former title! I shall now be called—The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven!”

“They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices; and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”

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

“Most of us take pride in our knowledge and expertise, and in staying true to our beliefs and opinions. That makes sense in a stable world, where we get rewarded for having conviction in our ideas. The problem is that we live in a rapidly changing world, where we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking.”

“Mufaro beamed with pride. ‘The king has asked for the most worthy and the most beautiful. No, Manyara, I cannot send you alone. Only a king can choose between two such worthy daughters. Both of you must go.”

″‘Proud? Proud indeed!’ I recoiled from the venom of her attack. ‘It is a trick! This thing beauty they talk about. Believe me, it is a low trick put out by God self.’ Her face was flushed with anger. ‘He puts meaning into beauty, and reduces the meaning to nothing.‘”

“You are a West Indian girl going to school in New York and you are proud.”

“Instead of being delighted as her husband had hoped, she tossed the invitation peevishly onto the table and muttered: ‘What earthly use is that to me?‘”

″‘She must be really good,’ thought Michiel proudly. He didn’t realize that a man doesn’t like to complain in the presence of a pretty girl- and it had certainly never occurred to him that Erica might be a pretty girl.”

″‘What’s wrong with the pits?’ His father’s face grew red with anger. ‘We’re a family of colliers, me and my father before me, and now John.‘”

“It was the usual type of school song, full of pride, joy, and striving. Mildred had never yet mixed a potion with joy, nor flown her broomstick with pride- she was usually too busy trying to keep upright!”

″‘I’m Jewish too.’ ‘You’re not!’ ‘I am!’ My father was talking to us about it only last week. He said we were Jews and no matter what happened my brother and I must never forget it.‘”

“Kingshaw was used to lacking any confidence in himself, to knowing that he could do nothing very well. Until now, he had not much cared how he’d got by. Now, he cared, his pride had risen, he could no longer be docile about himself. Everything was unfair.

“He had never before known how deep a hold upon him his fondness for the boy and his pride in him had taken. He had never seen his strength and good qualities and beauty as he seemed to see them now. To his obstinate nature it seemed impossible - more than impossible- to give up what he had so set his heart upon. And he determined that he would not give it up without a fierce struggle.”

“The only one! He was unique. He was special. Matt’s heart swelled with pride. If he wasn’t human, he might become something even better.”

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

“Agilulf passed by, attentive, nervous and proud; people’s bodies gave him a disagreeable feeling resembling envy, but also a stab of pride, of contemptuous superiority.”

“Since his accident he had unconsciously taken to wearing his hat at a rakish angle. This, and the way he always kept his right hand thrust into his breeches pocket, gave him a slightly arrogant air. The arrogance had always been there, but formerly it had come out as pride in his work—not in the way he wore his hat and walked.”

“On the whole he is not a bad pupil. I wouldn’t want to make him miserable because of a single prank. I know what it means to be a young Roman to be a pupil in the Xanthos School. And I hope you know it too.”

“And that was why Lassie meant so much to them. She represented some sort of pride that money had not been able to take away from them.”

“Carl Tiflin came to the barn with Jody one day. He looked admiringly at the groomed bay coat, and he felt the firm flesh over ribs and shoulders. ‘You’ve done a good job,’ he said to Jody. And this was the greatest praise he knew how to give. Jody was bright with pride for hours afterward.”

“You know Fezzik, you finally did something right.”

“You know Fezzik, you finally did something right.”

“Despite their fear, they had followed, for pride was a dangerous thing.”

“I did know. Because if possible to paint fakes that look like that? Las Vegas would be the most beautiful city in the history of earth! Anyway- so funny! Here I am, so proudly teaching you to steal apples and candy from the magazine, while you have stolen world masterpiece of art.”

“Thirstily and gratefully. ‘My pride as an innkeeper’.”

“I feel like a cracked vase that everything has leaked out of: pride, dignity, courage, heart, guts. The only thing remaining in the vase is terror. A terror that fills me completely. A blinding terror.”

“His pride,” said Miss Lucas, “does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.”

The fact that Mr. Mark “wrote,” though nobody knew what, was a matter of pride in the housekeeper’s room.

“You’ve done pretty well, I must say, Anne,” said Marilla, trying to hide her extreme pride in Anne from Mrs. Rachel’s critical eye.

Matthew was in the seventh heaven of gratified pride over the honor conferred on his Anne and Marilla was not far behind, although she would have died rather than admit it, and said she didn’t think it was very proper for a lot of young folks to be gadding over to the hotel without any responsible person with them.

She drew a long breath and flung her head up proudly, courage and determination tingling over her like an electric shock. She would not fail before Gilbert Blythe—he should never be able to laugh at her, never, never!

A distinguished personage happened to visit the school that morning, and Amy’s beautifully drawn maps received praise, which honor to her foe rankled in the soul of Miss Snow, and caused Miss March to assume the airs of a studious young peacock. But, alas, alas! Pride goes before a fall, and the revengeful Snow turned the tables with disastrous success. No sooner had the guest paid the usual stale compliments and bowed himself out, than Jenny, under pretense of asking an important question, informed Mr. Davis, the teacher, that Amy March had pickled limes in her desk.

Amy was much offended that her overtures of peace had been repulsed, and began to wish she had not humbled herself, to feel more injured than ever, and to plume herself on her superior virtue in a way which was particularly exasperating. Jo still looked like a thunder cloud, and nothing went well all day.

“Why in the world should you spend your money, worry your family, and turn the house upside down for a parcel of girls who don’t care a sixpence for you? I thought you had too much pride and sense to truckle to any mortal woman just because she wears French boots and rides in a coupe,” said Jo.

“Poor and proud, as usual, but she’ll do.”

“On grand occasions you must wear your uniform; that will look very well. Do not forget your crosses. They still laugh at them in France, and yet always wear them, for all that.”

“Ah! there is your proud and selfish nature. You would expose the self-love of another with a hatchet, but you shrink if your own is attacked with a needle.”

You are a generous man, Albert, but perhaps you may be blinded by pride or resentment; if you refuse me, if you ask another for what I have a right to offer you, I will say it is ungenerous of you to refuse the life of your mother at the hands of a man whose father was allowed by your father to die in all the horrors of poverty and despair.

“And he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband.”

“He may be too proud to let any one take him out of a place that he is competent to fill, and fills well and with respect.”

He was very much pleased by my asking if I might sleep in my own little room, and I was pleased too; for I felt that I had done rather a great thing in making the request.

“He thought me too poor to wed his sister,” answered Heathcliff, “and was grieved that I got her: his pride was hurt, and he’ll never forgive it.”

“Well,” said Anne, “I certainly am proud, too proud to enjoy a welcome which depends so entirely upon place.”

“You talk of being proud; I am called proud, I know, and I shall not wish to believe myself otherwise; for our pride, if investigated, would have the same object, I have no doubt, though the kind may seem a little different.

His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo’s pride.

The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also. I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both punished.”