Modesty Quotes

Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.

S. L. Clemens

A modest man never talks of himself.

Jean de La Bruyère

With people of only moderate ability modesty is mere honesty but with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

Schopenhauer

Modesty is the conscience of the body.

Honoré de Balzac

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

Lord Chesterfield

Modesty died when false modesty was born.

S. L. Clemens

The proper name for the thing is modesty; but as we live in an age of prejudice and must not call things by their right names, we will yield to a more modern nomenclature and call it dignity.

G.K. Chesterton

Remember, there are more people in the world than yourself. Be modest! You have not yet invented nor thought anything which others have not thought or invented before. And should you really have done so, consider it a gift of heaven which you are to share with others.

Robert Schumann

Reading leads to knowing more. Knowing more leads to arrogance. Reading further leads to humbleness.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Modesty is only arrogance by stealth.

Terry Pratchett

Life humbles the rich by giving them problems that money can’t resolve, or, dissolve.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

To be modest in speaking truth is hypocrisy. TM-ST-95

Kahlil Gibran

Like it or not, we are trendsetters. Just as every fashion model ever to strut the runway, we affect the minds of others by what we wear. With usch power it's vital to question ourselves: 'Am I an example of Christ-centeredness? Or have I just gotten comfortable in the "Christian routine" and forgotten why I've chosen to live this way?

Hannah Farver

Pantaloons were often worn tight as paint and were not a great deal less revealing, particularly as they were worn without underwear. . . . Jackets were tailored with tails in the back, but were cut away in front so that they perfectly framed the groin. It was the first time in history that men's apparel was consciously designed to be more sexy than women's.

Bill Bryson

Victorian rigidities were such that ladies were not even allowed to blow out candles in mixed company, as that required them to pucker their lips suggestively. They could not say that they were going "to bed"--that planted too stimulating an image--but merely that they were "retiring." It became effectively impossible to discuss clothing in even a clinical sense without resort to euphemisms. Trousers became "nether integuments" or simply "inexpressibles" and underwear was "linen." Women could refer among themselves to petticoats or, in hushed tones, stockings, but could mention almost nothing else that brushed bare flesh.

Bill Bryson

When David Markson wrote in June to complain about an author's getting an award he though should have been his, Wallace gently warned him away from the pitfall of envy: "Mostly I try to remember how lucky I am to be able to write, and doubly, triply lucky I am that anyone else is willing to read it, to say nothing of publishing it. I'm no pollyanna - this keeping-the-spirits-up shit is hard work, and I don't often do it well. But I try... Life is good

D.T. Max

Unaffected modesty is the sweetest charm of female excellence, the richest gem in the diadem of her honor.

Noah Webster

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.

Oliver Goldsmith

Every writer on this planet THINKS he is a great writer (why waste your entire life writing when you believe you are mediocre?) but its deemed socially unacceptable to actually speak out such thoughts. So, modesty is always a public concept and not an inner one. For that reason alone 'modesty' can actually be said to be the product of a large ego, for the ego is primarily concerned with survival and society rewards this dishonesty and tends to punish honesty (see Camus)

Martijn Benders

There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall

There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall

- Why you?- (...) I’m the best.- Modest of you.- I am the best. Modesty has nothing to say about it.

Paul Hoffman

I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.

Coco Chanel

In a gentle way, you can shake the world

Mahatma Gandhi

We can all participate in the heritage of man. We all can help to preserve it. And we can all make our own modest contribution to it.We must not as for more.

Karl R. Popper

That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit.

Jane Austen

Modesty was hardly a priority in her mind until now. Now she had been cast from Hell and again knew shame.

Thomm Quackenbush

The crux of my argument is this—we cannot truly understand what we should put on, say, or do, without looking at our behavior in relationship to Christ. In Christ, decency in behavior and dress is far larger than the particulars of modesty. By the world’s standards, modesty is a rule passed down from generation to generation which involves choosing a garment that submits to a certain standard set by a mother or community, one that constantly changes.” – Stacie Parlee-Johnson (Ch. 9, A Theology of Modesty)

Rosalie De Rosset

I am sufficiently proud of my knowing something to be modest about my not knowing all.

Vladimir Nabokov

The earth is large and old enough to teach us modesty.

Hans Cloos

Modesty Quotes

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