quotations about humility
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
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
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
I am afraid humility to genius is as an extinguisher to a candle.
WILLIAM SHENSTONE
Essays on Men and Manners
Humility is the dress-coat of pride.
T. ELYOT
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
That which humbles us is always for our good.
J. H. EVANS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Humiliation scars deeper than the lash.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left.
OSCAR LEVANT
attributed, The Educator's Book of Quotes
The artist alone among men knows what true humility means. His reach forever exceeds his grasp. He can never be satisfied with his work. He knows when he has done well, but he knows he has never attained his dream. He knows he never can.
RHETA CHILDE DORR
A Woman of Fifty
Ships that are heaviest laden sail lowest; so a mind laden with sound philosophy is most humble.
T. GALE
attributed, Day's Collacon
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 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, that low, sweet root
From which all heavenly virtues shoot.
THOMAS MOORE
The Loves of the Angels
Humility is a healthy balance between pride and self-devaluation.
J. MAURUS
Liberation from Life's Shadows
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.
JOHN SELDEN
Table Talk
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
Humility is a grace that shines in a high condition but cannot, equally, in a low one because a person in the latter is already, perhaps, too much humbled.
SAMUEL RICHARDSON
Pamela
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
Humility consists in a low opinion of one's self, and in a contempt of vain glory. He that shines with this noble grace, is a person whose high imaginations have been cast down; not by the force of moral precepts, but by the mighty weapons of the christian warfare. Once he thought he was something, now he sees that he is nothing. Once he was desirous that other men should think highly of him, and he loved to have the preeminence; but now he can, in some sincerity, say, with the royal Psalmist, "Mine heart is not haughty, neither are mine eyes lofty. I have behaved and quieted myself as a child weaned of his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child." Shall we describe him in relation to his neighbor, and to his God?
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On Humility", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity