Quotessence
Home / Topics / Modest Quotes

Modest Quotes

Browse 622 quotes about Modest.

Related topics

MenPeopleIfsThinkingWorldMeanShouldTryingHumbleLittlesWellsHumilityKnowsMayKindWayDoeFeelsMindWantYearsHeartPersonsSimpleHumansMadeStillsWritingDoneFirstsPrideShowsArtGivingHas BeensHomeSelfWould BeCircumstancesInspirationalVirtueArtistBelieveBookImportantLifeProudRealSchoolSpiritAgeChildrenEndsFallGrewHelpingI CanLevelsPlayPurposeScalesStatesWiseYoungActionAmericaArrogantBodyCharacterCostCountryDifficultDreamEasyEnoughEyeFashionFeelingsFilmFormGrew UpJobsLeaderLooksMightMy OwnNeedsOrderProblemReasonRoomsSometimesTalentTermTwoValuesAchievementAmountBeautifulBornmore

Modest Quotes

“Man can never come up to his ideal standard. It is the nature of the immortal spirit to raise that standard higher and higher as it goes from strength to strength, still upward and onward. The wisest and greatest men are ever the most modest.”

MenStillsSpiritHigherStandardsIdealsRaisesCome UpImmortalModestWisestGreatest Man
Book:Memoirs, [ed.] by R.W. Emerson, W.H. Channing, and J.F. Clarke
Create image

“The heroic hours of life do not announce their presence by drum and trumpet, challenging us to be true to ourselves by appeals to the martial spirit that keeps the blood at heat. Some little, unassuming, unobtrusive choice presents itself before us slyly and craftily, glib and insinuating, in the modest garb of innocence. . . . Then it is that you will be summoned to show the courage of adventurous youth.”

LittlesCharacterShowsSpiritChoicesHoursChallengesBloodYouthBeing TrueAppealsInnocenceHeatHeroicModestAdventurousTrumpetsUnassuming
Author:Benjamin Cardozo
Create image

“To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.”

MenGivingWellsHe ManModestGive And Take
Book:Stoic Six Pack: Meditations of Marcus Aurelius The Golden Sayings Fragments and Discourses of Epictetus Letters from a Stoic and The Enchiridion
Create image

“When a monarchy gradually transforms itself into a republic, the executive power there preserves titles, honors, respect, and even money long after it has lost the reality of power. The English, having cut off the head of one of their kings and chased another off the throne, still go on their knees to address the successors of those princes. On the other hand, when a republic falls under one man's yoke, the ruler's demeanor remains simple, unaffected, and modest, as if he had not already been raised above everybody.”

IfsMenLongStillsHandsRealityFallLostSimpleCuttingGoes OnKingsHonorRemainsRaisedTitlesPreservesKneesAddressesExecutivesOne ManRepublicRulersThronesModestMonarchySuccessorsYokeDemeanorExecutive Power
Book:Democracy in America
Create image

“I stood tip-toe upon a little hill, The air was cooling, and so very still, That the sweet buds which with a modest pride Pull droopingly, in slanting curve aside, Their scantly leaved, and finely tapering stems, Had not yet lost those starry diadems Caught from the early sobbing of the morn.”

LittlesStillsLostAirSweetPrideCaughtHillsStemModestToesCurvesBudSobbingCoolingTaperingGoldfinches
Book:Poetry Manuscripts at Harvard
Create image

“Women who were housewives, who were pretty miserable ... felt inspired by her book and their life changed. They didn't become megastars, but they became a librarian or something. I've heard women say again and again when the subject of Germaine comes up: 'Well, her book changed my life for the better.' And they'll be modest women living pretty ordinary lives, but better lives.”

WellsBookFeltHeardSubjectsChangedOrdinaryInspiredCome UpMiserableLife ChangingAgain And AgainModestBetter LifeLibrarianHousewifeChanged My LifeOrdinary Life
Author:Germaine Greer
Create image

“The most offensive egotist is he that fears to say "I" and "me." "It will probably rain" - that is dogmatic. "I think it will rain" - that is natural and modest. Montaigne is the most delightful of essayists because so great is his humility that he does not think it important that we see not Montaigne. He so forgets himself that he employs no artifice to make us forget him.”

ThinkingDoeImportantNaturalForgetHumilityRainOffensiveModestDelightfulDogmaticArtificeEssayistsForget Him
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)
Create image

“Before the reader is introduced to the modest country medical practitioner who is to be the chief personage of the following tale, it will be well that he should be made acquainted with some particulars as to the locality in which, and the neighbours among whom, our doctor followed his profession.”

ShouldWellsMadeBookCountryReaderDoctorsFollowingProfessionMedicalTalesChiefsModestNeighbourLocality
Book:Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...
Create image

“When a man has his heart in the right place and good taste, he can not only do well in politics but is even predetermined for it. If someone is modest and does not yearn for power, he is certainly not ill-equipped to engage in politics; on the contrary, he belongs there. What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.”

IfsKnowsMenWellsHeartDoeLyingAbilityNeededTasteIllContrarySensibilityModestCan NotRight PlaceGood TastePredetermined
Author:Vaclav Havel
Create image

“Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.”

ThinkingYearsStillsEndsWholeHandsTodayEarthSituationAcceptingIssuesImagineEasierCapitalismYears AgoWhole LifeDebateRadicalObsessedThirtyFortyParadoxCommunistCosmicCapitalistHittingModestCatastropheVirusesFascistsStrangenessAsteroidsRadical Change
Author:Slavoj Žižek
Create image

“It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing-and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite - that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that.”

MenShouldLittlesImportantLastsCan DoSimpleForgetTeachObjectsOughtLessonsThousandPureAll ThingsImportant ThingsPhotographCreditIntellectNineEnginesModestTelephonesNinetySteamPlagiarismNinety NineTelegraphSteam EnginesPhonograph
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)
Create image

“Status Anxiety: A worry, so pernicious as to be capable of ruining extended stretches of our lives, that we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of success laid down by our society and that we may as a result be stripped of dignity and respect; a worry that we are currently occupying too modest a rung or are about to fall to a lower one.”

MayHappinessSuccessFallResultsWorryOur LivesFailingDangerAnxietyCapableIdealsDignityOur SocietyModestConformPerniciousDignity And Respect
Author:Alain de Botton
Create image