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
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 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 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
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.
MUHAMMAD ALI
attributed, Muhammad Ali
That which humbles us is always for our good.
J. H. EVANS
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
Humiliation scars deeper than the lash.
TOBSHA LEARNER
The Witch of Cologne
Humility, that low, sweet root
From which all heavenly virtues shoot.
THOMAS MOORE
The Loves of the Angels
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
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
Ships that are heaviest laden sail lowest; so a mind laden with sound philosophy is most humble.
T. GALE
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
Real excellence and humility are not incompatible one with the other, on the contrary they are twin sisters.
HENRI-DOMINIQUE LACORDAIRE
Letters to Young Men
In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
SIMONE WEIL
Gravity and Grace
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 a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.
JOHN SELDEN
Table Talk
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