quotations about modesty
I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
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The Devil and the Good Lord
Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there?
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Measure for Measure
The beauty of the soul is wrapped in modest fashion.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
Think Great: Be Great!
Modesty, if it were to be recommended for nothing else, this were enough, that the pretending to little leaves a man at ease; whereas boasting requires a perpetual labour to appear what he is not.
ALEXANDER POPE
"Thoughts on Various Subjects"
Modesty is the delicate form of hypocrisy.
REMY DE GOURMONT
Philosophic Nights in Paris
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
What's Wrong with the World
True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, August 15, 1712
The earth is large and old enough to teach us modesty.
HANS CLOOS
Conversation with the Earth
Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean. And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?
KAHLIL GIBRAN
The Prophet
False modesty is the most decent of all deceptions.
NICOLAS CHAMFORT
The Cynic's Breviary
Modesty is that feeling by which honorable shame acquires a valuable and lasting authority.
CICERO
Rhetorical Invention
Modesty answers not the crude how of femininity, but the beautiful why.
WENDY SHALIT
A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
I am sufficiently proud of my knowing something to be modest about my not knowing all.
VLADIMIR NABOKOV
Lolita
Immodest words admit of no defence;
For want of decency is want of sense.
WENTWORTH DILLON
Essay on Translated Verse
Modesty is the color of virtue.
DIOGENES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Darkness spoils modesty: no man blushes in the dark.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Modesty is agreeable; extreme bashfulness is ridiculous.
JOHN FERRIAR
attributed, Day's Collacon
A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.
RICHARD STEELE
The Guardian, April 8, 1713
True modesty conceals whatever is offensive to decency; false modesty, that which is disagreeable to fashion: the one is silent and natural, the other protrusive and impertinent.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections