quotations about humility
Humility is the dress-coat of pride.
T. ELYOT
attributed, Day's Collacon
To have humility is to experience reality, not in relation to ourselves, but in its sacred independence. It is to see, judge, and act from the point of rest in ourselves. Then, how much disappears, and all that remains falls into place.
DAG HAMMARSKJOLD
Markings
Humility is the luxurious art of reducing ourselves to a point, not to a small thing or a large one, but to a thing with no size at all, so that to it all the cosmic things are what they really are -- of immeasurable stature. That the trees are high and the grasses short is a mere accident of our own foot-rules and our own stature. But to the spirit which has stripped off for a moment its own idle temporal standards the grass is an everlasting forest, with dragons for denizens; the stones of the road are as incredible mountains piled one upon the other; the dandelions are like gigantic bonfires illuminating the lands around; and the heath-bells on their stalks are like planets hung in heaven each higher than the other.
G. K. CHESTERTON
"A Defence of Humilities,", The Defendant
Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Chicago Tribune, Sep. 26, 2004
Humility is a healthy balance between pride and self-devaluation.
J. MAURUS
Liberation from Life's Shadows
True humility is the certain mark of a bright reason, and elevated soul, as being the natural consequence of them. When we come to have our minds cleared by reason from those thick mists that our disorderly passions cast about them; when we come to discern more perfectly, and consider more nearly, the immense power and goodness, the infinite glory and duration of God; and, to make a comparison between these perfections of his, and our own frailty and weakness, and the shortness and uncertainty of our beings, we should humble ourselves even unto the dust before him.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
speech, Jul. 12, 1945
I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him.
MAHATMA GANDHI
An Autobiography
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.
JOHN SELDEN
Table Talk
Ships that are heaviest laden sail lowest; so a mind laden with sound philosophy is most humble.
T. GALE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Humility, that low, sweet root
From which all heavenly virtues shoot.
THOMAS MOORE
The Loves of the Angels
In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
SIMONE WEIL
Gravity and Grace
Humility with energy is often mistaken for pride.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Humility is often merely feigned submissiveness assumed in order to subject others, an artifice of pride which stoops to conquer, and although pride has a thousand ways of transforming itself it is never so well disguised and able to take people in as when masquerading as humility.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Sentences et Maximes Morales
The saints in every age have gloried in thee, as a most distinguishing ingredient in their character; and according to their eminency, has been their measure of humility. The high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, and will not give his glory to another, when from his high and holy place he views men and their works, he turns away disdainful from the pompous palaces of mighty kings, the courts of popes and sultans, and throws a favorable glance toward the humble cottage of him in whose heart thou dwellest.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On Humility", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.
MUHAMMAD ALI
attributed, Muhammad Ali
Humility is a cuirass which turns aside the blows dealt by the enmity of man; but that cuirass is defective at the heart.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Humility is the softening shadow before the stature of Excellence,
And lieth lowly on the ground, beloved and lovely as the violet.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
Poverty is a noose that strangles humility and breeds disrespect for God and man.
NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB
If you see any thing in yourself which may make you proud, look a little further, and you will find enough to make you humble.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine