quotations about humility
Poverty is a noose that strangles humility and breeds disrespect for God and man.
NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.
JOHN SELDEN
Table Talk
Those who are capable of humility, of justice, of love, of aspiration, stand already on a platform that commands the sciences and arts, speech and poetry, action and grace. For whoso dwells in this moral beatitude already anticipates those special powers which men prize so highly.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"The Over-Soul", Essays
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.
MUHAMMAD ALI
attributed, Muhammad Ali
Humility is not thinking meanly of yourself; it is simply not thinking of yourself at all.
WARREN W. WIERSBE
The Bible Exposition Commentary
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
In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
SIMONE WEIL
Gravity and Grace
Humility means accepting reality with no attempt to outsmart it.
DAVID RICHO
The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them
Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues: hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
attributed, Christian Spirit
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
Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man, and this immediately, though, of course, only in the case of complete and permanent humility.
FRANZ KAFKA
notebook, Feb. 24, 1918
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
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
Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
JANE AUSTEN
Pride and Prejudice
Humility, like darkness, reveals the heavenly lights.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
Humility is the oil that smoothes and soothes relationships.
RICHARD WARREN
The Purpose Driven Life
Humility is also a healing virtue; it will cicatrize a
thousand wounds, which pride would keep forever open.
WASHINGTON ALLSTON
Lectures on Art and Poems
But above all, to recommend thy heavenly charms, the Son of God disdained not the form of a servant, the humble manger, the ignominious cross, the gloomy sepulchre. O let not man be proud, when God was so humble! Begone from my heart, all self-elating thoughts; hence my ambitious desires. But come holy humility, with all thy amiable train, and fix thy residence in my soul; predominate in my affections. Holy Spirit, make all her enemies her footstool; and teach me to despise myself, except on account of my rational and immortal nature, to spurn under my feet all vain glory, and to pursue the honor that cometh from God only.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On Humility", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
Humility with energy is often mistaken for pride.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.
BILL WILSON
As Bill Sees It