quotes about Humility
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When a Krishna Conscious person is elevated to a responsible position, he never becomes puffed up. Just like a tree when over-laden with fruits becomes humble and lower down. Similarly, a great soul in Krishna Consciousness becomes humbler than the grass and bowed down like the fruitful trees because a Krishna Conscious person acts as the agent of Krishna, therefore he discharges his duty with great responsibility.
-- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada -
A tree full of ripened fruits bows down naturally, because of the weight of the fruits and its willingness to make its fruits accessible to others.
-- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada -
Be very humble when you plan so that Krishna is happy with you.
-- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada -
Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others.
-- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupadaSource : A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1976). “Bhagavad-Gita as it is: Abridged edition with translations and elaborate purports”
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Beginning of all knowledge comes from humility.
-- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada -
Humility is not weakness, but strength under control
-- A. R. Bernard -
Have more humility. Remember you don't know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life – and maybe even please a few strangers.
-- A.L. KennedySource : "Ten rules for writing fiction" by A.L. Kennedy, www.theguardian.com. February 19, 2010.
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Steadfastness is a noble quality, but unguided by knowledge or humility, it becomes rashness, or obstinacy.
-- Aaron Swartz -
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Playing the game I have learned the meaning of humility. It has given me an understanding of futility of the human effort.
-- Abba Eban -
There is one common thing in superstars - enthusiasm and humility towards their work. Off sets, they are big stars for others, and they carry themselves the way they want to. When they are working, they are not stars.
-- Abhishek Bachchan -
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
-- Abraham LincolnSource : Martin D. Tullai, Abraham Lincoln (1998). “Speaking of Abraham Lincoln”
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We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
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The emotional reaction in the peak experience has a special flavor of wonder, of awe, of reverence, of humility and surrender before the experience as before something great.
-- Abraham Maslow -
Superficial knowledge breeds arrogance; true knowledge induces humility.
-- Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi -
There is greatness in the fear of God, contentment in faith of God, and honour in humility.
-- Abu Bakr -
The people who abandon Jihad fall a victim to humility and degradation.
-- Abu Bakr -
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Pride works frequently under a dense mask, and will often assume the garb of humility.
-- Adam ClarkeSource : Adam Clarke (1831). “Discourses on various subjects relative to the being and attributes of God, and his works in creation, providence, and grace”, p.307
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Flattery is all right so long as you don't inhale.
-- Adlai E. Stevenson -
One must be willing to stand alone - in the unknown, with no reference to authority or the past or any of one's conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility.
-- Adyashanti -
We can express our worship to God in many ways. But if we love the Lord and are led by His Holy Spirit, our worship will always bring a delighted sense of admiring awe and a sincere humility on our part.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
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The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life: In himself, nothing; In God, everything. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
For the Christian, humility is absolutely indispensable. Without it there can be no self-knowledge, no repentance, no faith and no salvation.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
Let any man turn to God in earnest, let him begin to exercise himself unto godliness, let him seek to develop his powers of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility, and the results will exceed anything he may have hoped in his leaner and weaker days.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
There are two classes of Christians: the proud who imagine they are humble and the humble who are afraid they are proud. There should be another class: the self-forgetful who leave the whole thing in the hands of Christ and refuse to waste any time trying to make themselves good. They will reach the goal far ahead of the rest.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
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It takes simplicity and humility to worship God acceptably.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
And what kind of habitation pleases God? What must our natures be like before he can feel at home within us? He asks nothing but a pure heart and a single mind. He asks no rich paneling, no rugs from the Orient, no art treasures from afar. He desires but sincerity, transparency, humility, and love. He will see to the rest.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world. He promised to restore honor and integrity to the White House. Instead, he has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest president since Richard M. Nixon.
-- Al Gore -
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Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.
-- Alan AldaSource : "Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself". Book by Alan Alda, abcnews.go.com. September 4, 2007.
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Humility is born of the spirit, humiliation of the ego.
-- Alan Cohen -
Those who travel the high road of humility are not troubled by heavy traffic.
-- Alan K. Simpson -
I understood, by dint of digging into my memories, that modesty helped me to shine, humility helped me to triumph and virtue to oppress.
-- Albert Camus -
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What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.
-- Albert Einstein -
You probably have started losing touch with humility when your friends start avoiding you without telling you why.
-- Albert Kanene Obiefuna -
Pride is not the heritage of man; humility should dwell with frailty, and atone for ignorance, error, and imperfection.
-- Albert Pike -
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
-- Albert SchweitzerSource : Albert Schweitzer (1966). “The Teaching of Reverence for Life”
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Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people's experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things.
-- Aldous Huxley -
It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.
-- Aleksandr SolzhenitsynSource : Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1974). “August 1914”, Harmondsworth : Penguin
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If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
-- Aleksandr SolzhenitsynSource : "The Gulag Archipelago". Book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1973.
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The way to succeed is never quit. Thats it. But really be humble about it.
-- Alex Haley -
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Science even more than the Gospel teaches us humility. She cannot look down on anything, she does not know what superiority means, she despises nothing, never lies for the sake of a pose, and conceals nothing out of coquetry. She stops before the facts as an investigator, sometimes as a physician, never as an executioner, and still less with hostility and irony.
-- Alexander Herzen -
Tell the angel who will watch over your life to pray now and then for a man who, like Satan, believed himself for an instant to be equal to God, but who realized in all humility that supreme power and wisdom are in the hands of God alone.
-- Alexandre Dumas -
It is one of the triumphs of human wit ... to conquer by humility and submissiveness ... to make oneself small in order to appear great ... such ... are often the expedients of the neurotic.
-- Alfred Adler -
There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.
-- Alfred AustinSource : Alfred Austin (1906). “The Garden That I Love”
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A book tour is, first and foremost, an exercise in humility.
-- Alice McDermott -
We believe in humility and integrity, the spirit of one people, bound together under God. We understand that the Constitution was written to control and regulate the government, not the people.
-- Allen West -
Assuredly, Loving Souls, you should go to God with all humility and respect, humbling yourselves in His presence, especially when you remember your past ingratitude and sins.
-- Alphonsus Liguori -
Making people laugh is magic. I feel like if you have humility, then you can do anything in comedy.
-- Amanda Seyfried -
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If someone offends you, don't tell anyone about it except your elder, and you will be peaceful. Bow to everyone, paying no attention whether they respond to your bow or not. You must humble yourself before everyone and consider yourself the worst of all. If we have not committed the sins that others have, perhaps this is because we did not have the opportunity - the situation and circumstances were different. In each person there is something good and something bad; we usually see only the vices in people and we see nothing that is good.
-- Ambrose -
If you offer fasting with humility and with mercy, your bones, as Isaiah said, shall be fat, and you shall be like a well-watered garden (cf. Isa. 58:11). So, then, your soul shall grow fat and its virtues also by the spiritual richness of fasting, and your fruits shall be multiplied by the fertility of your mind, so that there may be in you the inebriation of soberness, like that cup of which the Prophet says: 'Your cup which inebriates, how excellent it is' (Ps. 23:5 LXX)!
-- Ambrose -
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.
-- Ambrose Bierce -
If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
-- Amy Carmichael -
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We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.
-- Anais NinSource : "Journal of Phenomenological Psychology", (Vol. 15), 1984.
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Atheism is a way of humility. It's to think oneself to be an animal, as we are actually and to allow oneself to become human.
-- Andre Comte-Sponville -
The cardinal doctrine of a fanatic's creed is that his enemies are the enemies of God.
-- Andrew Dickson WhiteSource : Andrew Dickson White (2012). “A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom: From Creation to the Victory of Scientific and Literary Methods”, p.149, Transaction Publishers
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The Mother's knowledge of unity, her powers of sensitivity, humility, and balance, and her infinite respect for the miracle of all life have now to be invoked by each of us and practiced if the 'masculine' rational imbalance of our civilization is to be righted before its too late.
-- Andrew HarveySource : Andrew Harvey (2012). “Radical Passion: Sacred Love and Wisdom in Action”, p.187, North Atlantic Books
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Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.
-- Andrew MurraySource : Andrew Murray (2016). “Humility: The Beauty of Holiness”, p.45, Aneko Press
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Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil.
-- Andrew MurraySource : Andrew Murray (2009). “Humility”, p.22, ReadHowYouWant.com
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Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God.
-- Andrew MurraySource : Andrew Murray, Donna Partow (2001). “Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness”, p.69, Bethany House
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Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.
-- Andrew MurraySource : Andrew Murray (2005). “Humility and Absolute Surrender”, p.33, Hendrickson Publishers
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The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the insignficances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.
-- Andrew Murray -
Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike. O that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all!
-- Andrew MurraySource : Andrew Murray (2005). “Humility and Absolute Surrender”, p.20, Hendrickson Publishers
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The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it.
-- Andrew MurraySource : Andrew Murray (2005). “Humility and Absolute Surrender”, p.15, Hendrickson Publishers
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Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust.
-- Andrew MurraySource : Andrew Murray (2016). “Humility: The Beauty of Holiness”, p.38, Gideon House Books
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While people argue with one another about the specifics of Freud's work and blame him for the prejudices of his time, they overlook the fundamental truth of his writing, his grand humility: that we frequently do not know our own motivations in life and are prisoners to what we cannot understand. We can recognize only a small fragment of our own, and an even smaller fragment of anyone else's, impetus.
-- Andrew Solomon -
This Sacrament really contains You, O my God, You whom the Angels adore, in whose presence the Spirits and mighty Powers tremble. Oh! if we could only see You clearly as they do, with what reverence would we approach this Sacrament, with what humility would we receive You.
-- Angela of Foligno -
It is the Sacrament of Love that excites the soul to ardent prayer. It stirs up the virtue of impetration and, as it were, forces God to grant our petition. It deepens the abyss of humility, above all it enkindles the flame of love in the heart; hence the Sacrament is the Gift of gifts, and the Grace of graces
-- Angela of Foligno -
Without humility of heart all the other virtues by which one runs toward God seem - and are - absolutely worthless.
-- Angela of FolignoSource : Angela (of Foligno), Paul Lachance (1993). “Complete works”, Paulist Pr
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We must shift our allegiances from fear to curiosity, from attachment to letting go, from control to trust, and from entitlement to humility.
-- Angeles ArrienSource : Angeles Arrien (2010). “The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom”, p.50, ReadHowYouWant.com
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We're all born with an ego – it's a natural part of who we are here. We're only completely without it in death. Fighting against this during life only creates more self-judgement. Plus, only when we love our ego unconditionally are we able to accept everyone else's. This is when it stops being an issue, and your humility and magnificence really shine through.
-- Anita Moorjani -
It takes a fearless, unflinching love and deep humility to accept the universe as it is. The most effective way he knew to accomplish that, the most powerful tool at his disposal, was the scientific method, which over time winnows out deception. It can't give you absolute truth because science is a permanent revolution, always subject to revision, but it can give you successive approximations of reality.
-- Ann Druyan -
Kate Otto, like so many in her generation, is committed to being a good global citizen and doing her part to make the world a better place. Everyday Ambassador is a refreshing approach which encourages collaborative work with focus, empathy, humility and patience to better affect positive change in communities throughout the world.
-- Ann Veneman -
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Confidence is a static state. Determination is active. Determination allows for doubt and for humility - both of which are critical in the world today. There is so much that we don’t know, and so much that we know we don’t know. To be overly confident or without doubt seems silly to me. Determination, on the other hand, is a commitment to win, a commitment to fight the good fight.
-- Anna Deavere SmithSource : Anna Deavere Smith (2008). “Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind”, p.25, Anchor
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An actor should always let humility outweigh ambition.
-- Anna KendrickSource : "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.
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I'm so humble it's crazy. I'm like the Kanye West of humility.
-- Anna Kendrick -
Humility was an important part of the way I grew up. And I found that to be less common when I moved to California. That's not to say humble people don't exist there, but ambition seems really important.
-- Anna KendrickSource : "Anna Kendrick: 'It's all about that fatal flaw'" by Ryan Gilbey, www.theguardian.com. May 24, 2012.
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I have a giant ego and terrible self-esteem, so I need to hit the re-set button fairly regularly - to get into presence, and humility, and being right-sized.
-- Anne Lamott -
If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it's the restaurant business.
-- Anthony Bourdain -
Learn to love humility, for it will cover all your sins. All sins are repulsive before God, but the most repulsive of all is pride of the heart. Do not consider yourself learned and wise; otherwise, all your efforts will be destroyed, and your boat will reach the harbor empty. If you have great authority, do not threaten anyone with death. Know that, according to nature, you too are susceptible to death, and that every soul sheds its body as its final garment.
-- Anthony of Padua -
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The spirit of humility is sweeter than honey, and those who nourish themselves with this honey produce sweet fruit.
-- Anthony of Padua -
Humility is the situation of the earth. It's there silent and accepting everything and in a miraculous way making out of all the refuse new richness...transforming corruption itself into a power of life and a new possibility of creativeness, open to the sunshine, open to the rain, ready to receive any seed we sow and capable of bringing thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold out of every seed.
-- Anthony of Sourozh -
If we are to understand anything of the human mind we must approach the people of the past with humility rather than an overconfident superiority.
-- Anthony Terence Quincey StewartSource : Anthony Terence Quincey Stewart (2001). “The Shape of Irish History”
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With my work I attempt to help man to overcome his alienation; I do this by surrounding his daily life with objects, which confront him in a tactile way with the final and deepest problems of our existence. I want the means that I employ to create the necessary stimulus to be as direct as possible. Instead of giving a sermon on humility, I often prefer to depict humility itself.
-- Antoni Tapies -
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If you ask, what is the first step in the way of truth? I answer humility," saith St. Austin. "If you ask, what is the second? I say humility. If you ask, what is the third? I answer the same - humility.
-- Antony C. Sutton -
Astronomy, as nothing else can do, teaches men humility.
-- Arthur C. Clarke -
Cultivate humility it is the way of connectedness. Beware of false humility it leads to self-righteousness.
-- Arthur Dobrin -
There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity, modesty and humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit; and there is no true beauty without the signatures of these graces in the very countenance.
-- Arthur Helps -
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When we consider the incidents of former days, and perceive, while reviewing the long line of causes, how the most important events of our lives originated in the most trifling circumstances; how the beginning of our greatest happiness or greatest misery is to be attributed to a delay, to an accident, to a mistake; we learn a lesson of profound humility.
-- Arthur Helps -
The job is to ask questions-it always was-and to ask them as inexorably as I can. And to face the absence of precise answers with a certain humility.
-- Arthur Miller -
There is no vice, of which a man can be guilty, no meanness, no shabbiness, no unkindness, which excited so much indignation among his contemporaries, friends and neighbors, as his success. This is the one unpardonable crime, which reason cannot defend, nor [can] humility mitigate.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer -
As we strive to teach others we must have the humility to acknowledge that we too still have much to learn.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi -
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Tibetans look at a person who holds himself above others, believing he is better than others and knows more, and they say that person is like someone sitting on a mountain top: it is cold there, it is hard, and nothing will grow. But if the person puts himself in a lower position, then that person is like a fertile field.
-- B. Alan WallaceSource : B. Alan Wallace, Steven Wilhelm (2016). “Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up: A Practical Approach for Modern Life”, p.155, Simon and Schuster
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Love begets courage, moderation creates abundance and humility generates power
-- B.K.S. Iyengar -
Cultivate a sympathetic heart, humility in dealings, and selflessness in action. If these are practiced with earnestness and sincerity, then you will win the race of life.
-- Baba Hari Dass -
The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.
-- Barack Obama -
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The oars game me power but also taught me humility.
-- Barry S. Strauss -
It's awfully important to win with humility. It's also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won't know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.
-- Bear Bryant -
Printing demands a humility of mind, for the lack of which many of the fine arts are even now floundering in self-conscious and maudlin experiments.
-- Beatrice Warde -