Quotes & Sayings About False Modesty

The thunder of false modesty was deafening. — Sebastian Faulks

One who has an inferiority complex can never be really humble, but can only have false modesty or false humility. — Sri Chinmoy

I know that, like many other writers, I have many faults, for I am the first to be dissatisfied with myself ... I cannot help feeling that there is much more hidden in me than I have hitherto been able to express as a writer. And yet, speaking without false modesty, there is a great deal that is true and that came from my heart in what I have expressed already. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Authentic love is obviously something good. When we love we become most fully human. But people often consider themselves loving when actually they are possessive or manipulative. People sometimes treat others as objects to satisfy their own needs. How easy it is to be deceived by the many voices in our society that advocate a permissive approach to sexuality, without regard for modesty, self-respect or the moral values that bring quality into human relationships! This is worship of a false god; instead of bringing life, it brings death. — Pope Benedict XVI

False modesty is the refinement of vanity. It is a lie. — Jean De La Bruyere

I've never met a soldier who knew he was a hero. It's not false modesty. They simply decide to do something that they know they must do, usually for there comrades, because if they don't, those people will suffer in some way. For them, that compulsion is far stronger than any fear. The fact we find it exceptional is a sad indictment of the human race. I'd like to live in a world of heroes. If we did, there would be no wars. — Karen Traviss

Most timidities have such secret compensations and Miss Bart was discerning enough to know that the inner vanity is generally in proportion to the outer self depreciation. — Edith Wharton

There are twenty-four characters in this book named Max. Let there be an end to this silly business of authors never giving their own names to characters in their novels. False modesty, faugh! — Max Shulman

To the devil with false modesty. — Stephen King

False modesty is an attempt to tear yourself down. True humility focuses more on build up others. — Tony Dungy

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility. — Paulo Coelho

With characteristic lack of false modesty, John once said to me, My looks are a rough test of people. If they don't begin to see me beautiful when they have had a chance to learn, I know they're dead inside, and dangerous. — Olaf Stapledon

There's something wrong in not appreciating one's own special abilities, my girl. Find your own limitations, yes, but don't limit yourself with false modesty. — Anne McCaffrey

I don't look in the mirror; don't like what I see; never have. I am not my idea of a beauty. Never was. This is not false modesty. I've just never been enamoured of my face, which of course is magnified umpteen times on screen. — Lauren Bacall

Sex' is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other — Marquis De Sade

Esti now discovered for the first time what intellectually fertile soil a railway compartment is. Here the lives of strangers appear before us in, as it were, cross section - suddenly and condensed - as in a novel opened haphazardly in the middle. Our curiosity, which otherwise we conceal by false modesty, can be satisfied under the constraint of our being enclosed together in a moving room, and we can peep into those lives and speculate on what the beginning of the novel must have been and how it will end. — Dezso Kosztolanyi

It isn't false modesty when I say this, but although I am supposed to be a famous person it doesn't mean anything to me. I just sit at home and work. — Gyorgy Ligeti

Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false. The one guards virtue, the other betrays it. — Joseph Addison

Of lies, false modesty is the most decent. — Nicolas Chamfort

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable. — Joseph Addison

In general, one must have value oneself in order freely and willingly to acknowledge value in another. This is the basis for the requirement that modesty accompany all merits, as well as the disproportionately loud praise for this virtue which alone, among all its sisters, is always added to the praise of anyone distinguished in some way by the person who dares to praise him, so as to conciliate the worthless and silence their wrath. For what is modesty if not false humility which someone with merits and advantages in a world teeming with perfidious envy uses to beg the pardon of those who have none? Someone who does not lay claim to merit because he in fact has none is being honest, not modest. — Arthur Schopenhauer

The thing I hate most is false modesty. The artists who are, like, 'Oh, you know, I'm really not that good. Oh, I can't believe I'm here.' I find it vaguely sinister, even. — Rufus Wainwright

True humility is more like self-forgetfulness than false modesty. — C.S. Lewis

There is no conceit equal to false modesty, and there is no
politics like antipolitics — Christopher Hitchens

Ah. Ah! A man of modesty, either so false that it may be true or so true that it seems entirely false. I can see why Bayard speaks so well of you, sir. — Jim Butcher

When you know who you are, you won't have false modesty — Sunday Adelaja

Cease with the displays of false modesty. The entire palace knows about it."
A feeling of warmth crept up Shahrzad's neck. "Knows about what?"
Despina grinned. "The Caliph of Khorasan going into the gardens at dawn alone. And returning with a single rose. — Renee Ahdieh

There is a false modesty, which is vanity; a false glory, which is levity; a false grandeur, which is meanness; a false virtue, which is hypocrisy, and a false wisdom, which is prudery. — Jean De La Bruyere

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered. — Harriet Martineau

False modesty is evidence of secret pride, Mr. Winterborne — Lisa Kleypas

Don't allow false modesty,doubts or unbelief prevent you from accepting God's favor. The door of mercy stands wide open. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

It's the real thing at last. A new type of man: and it's people like you who've got to begin to make him." "That's my trouble. Don't think it's false modesty, but I haven't yet seen how I can contribute." "No, but we have. You are what we need: a trained sociologist with a radically realistic outlook, not afraid of responsibility. Also, a sociologist who can write." "You don't mean you want me to write up all this?" "No. We want you to write it down - to camouflage it. Only for the present, of course. Once the thing gets going we shan't have to bother about the great heart of the British public. We'll make the great heart what we want it to be. But in the meantime, it does make a difference how things are put. — C.S. Lewis

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit. — Jean De La Bruyere

Author describes auto CEO's decisions to drive rather than fly to Washington as "showy penitence". — Ron Suskind

False modesty is never admirable, and least of all among those who command others. — Christopher Paolini

The hunger and thirst for knowledge, the keen delight in the chase, the good humored willingness to admit that the scent was false, the eager desire to get on with the work, the cheerful resolution to go back and begin again, the broad good sense, the unaffected modesty, the imperturbable temper, the gratitude for any little help that was given - all these will remain in my memory though I cannot paint them for others. — Frederic William Maitland

A false modesty is the meanest species of pride. — Edward Gibbon

False modesty can be worse than arrogance. — David Mitchell

Who anger, nor joy, nor pride, nor false modesty, nor stupefaction, nor vanity,
Can draw away from the high ends of life, is ever considered wise certainly.
[20] - 33 Mahatma Vidur — Munindra Misra

Have you ever considered making at least a pretense of humility, Mr. Hunt? Just for the sake of politeness?
"I don't believe in false modesty."
"People might like you more if you did."
"Would you? — Lisa Kleypas

Diffidence is a sort of false modesty. — William Makepeace Thackeray

I definitely was always expected and encouraged to be a songwriter from a very young age, ... But really it's because, as a child, I thought I was Judy Garland. And when I started out, I was a little nuts. I thought I was a classic, legendary superstar when only 10 people knew who I was. I feel in some ways that my confidence is misinterpreted as arrogance, which is understandable. But I've also always thought that false modesty is evil. — Rufus Wainwright

I think in the world of indie music there's this sort of false modesty. — Alex Kapranos

I would say about myself that I was a true gentleman with a mind more male than female, but, together with this, I was anything but masculine and, combined with the mind and character of a man, I possessed the attractions of a loveable woman. May I be pardoned for offering this candid expression of my feelings instead of trying to cover them a veil of false modesty. This — Robert K. Massie

False modesty is as bad as false pride. Know exactly what you are capable of at any moment, and act accordingly. Any other path is folly - and could be deadly in battle. — Christie Golden

When entering on new ground we must not be afraid to express even risky ideas so as to stimulate research in all directions. As Priestley put it, we must not remain inactive through false modesty based on fear of being mistaken. — Claude Bernard

Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths. — William Shakespeare

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know; — William Shakespeare

And so I miss the fertilization that might come from a contact. And for me
yes, I think I might as well admit it
fertilization does come a great deal from contacts. Why then do I avoid them
in a sort of false pride
shyness
timorous modesty? I used to be afraid of falling in love with people
or having them think I was
that I was chasing them (how ridiculous
I am actually always running away!) but now surely
I should be mature enough to be over that. I am no longer afraid of falling in love, and the other false modesties should vanish. I cannot bear to think "par delicatesse j'ai perdu ma vie." (Because of discretion I have lost my life). — Anne Morrow Lindbergh

False modesty is better than none. — Vilhjalmur Stefansson