Modesty Quotes:

In connection with death, or birth, or love, modesty is only a rather puerile self-consciousness.

topic: Ornaments, Modesty, Maximum

- Margaret Deland

topic: Self, Connections, Modesty

His modesty amounts to deformity.

- Margot Asquith

topic: Modesty, Deformity

How beautiful is modesty! It winneth upon all beholders; but a word or a glance may destroy the pure love that should have been for thee.

- Martin Farquhar Tupper

topic: Beautiful, May, Modesty

Inflation is lower and more stable and the real business cycle fluctuations are more modest.

- Martin Feldstein

topic: Real, Modesty, Fluctuation

No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.

- Mary Wortley Montagu

topic: Men, Modesty, Fortune

In all modesty, my summing up of 1955-6 and 1956-7 must be that no club in the country could live with Manchester United.

- Matt Busby

topic: Country, Clubs, Modesty, Summing Up

None of the adults I knew ever touched in public, much less kneaded each others flesh.

- Maureen Howard

topic: Flesh, Adults, Modesty

The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity.

- Max Beerbohm

topic: Balance, Modesty, Popularity

I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned affectation. It's like decal stuck up on a person.

- Maya Angelou

topic: Modesty, Stuck Up, Stuck

You don't want modesty, you want humility. Humility comes from inside out. It says someone was here before me and I'm here because I've been paid for. I have something to do and I will do that because I'm paying for someone else who has yet to come.

- Maya Angelou

topic: Humility, Want, Modesty

Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence.

- Napoleon Hill

topic: Silence, Modesty, Genuine, Think And Grow Rich

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.

- Oliver Goldsmith

topic: Modesty, Virtue, Breasts, Stoops

Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.

- Oliver Herford

topic: Art, Modesty, Pretending, Humility And Modesty

Larry Summers is to modesty what Madonna is to Chastity.

- Paul Gigot

source: "The World According to Larry" by Moises Naim, foreignpolicy.com. November 11, 2009.

topic: Summer, Modesty, Chastity

Avoid failing, not only against purity, but even against the least rules of an exact modesty.

- Paul of the Cross

topic: Modesty, Failing, Purity

Everything that is exquisite hides itself.

- Philibert Joseph Roux

topic: Modesty, Exquisite

By the virtue of modesty the devout person governs all his exterior acts. With good reason, then, does St. Paul recommend this virtue to all and declare how necessary it is and as if this were not enough he considers that this virtue should be obvious to all.

- Pio of Pietrelcina

topic: Doe, Modesty, Virtue

We lament, too, the destruction of purity among women and young girls as is evidenced by the increasing immodesty of their dress and conversation and by their participation in shameful dances.

- Pope Pius XI

topic: Girl, Dresses, Modesty

The most insidious of sophisms are usually repeated to justify immodesty and seem to be the same everywhere.

- Pope Pius XII

topic: Modesty, Insidious, Justify

Mainly through sins of impurity, do the forces of darkness subjugate souls.

- Pope Pius XII

topic: Darkness, Soul, Modesty

Modesty is the delicate form of hypocrisy.

- Remy de Gourmont

topic: Hypocrisy, Modesty, Form

In all your movements, let nothing be evident that would offend the eyes of another.

- Saint Augustine

topic: Eye, Movement, Modesty

If modesty and candor are necessary to an author in his judgment of his own works, no less are they in his reader.

- Sarah Fielding

source: Sarah Fielding (1986). “The cry (1754)”, Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint

topic: Modesty, Judgment, Candor

The thunder of false modesty was deafening.

- Sebastian Faulks

topic: Modesty, Thunder, False Modesty

Elizabeth lifted her skirt, disregarding modesty, and delivered a swift kick to the creature's head.

- Seth Grahame-Smith

source: Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith (2009). “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, p.33, Quirk Books

topic: Skirts, Modesty, Kicks

Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either.

- Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

topic: Flower, Modesty, Sincerity

Modesty is the way you deal with beauty not the way you avoid it.

- Tariq Ramadan

topic: Way, Modesty, Deals

Modesty was made for the ugly.

- Theophile Gautier

topic: Ugly, Modesty, Made

False modesty is better than none.

- Vilhjalmur Stefansson

topic: Modesty, False Modesty

Wherever valor true is found, true modesty will there abound.

- W. S. Gilbert

topic: Humility, Pride, Modesty

Modesty answers not the crude how of femininity, but the beautiful why.

- Wendy Shalit

source: Wendy Shalit (2014). “A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue”, p.154, Simon and Schuster

topic: Beautiful, Answers, Modesty

Modesty is the proof that morality is sexy.

- Wendy Shalit

topic: Sexy, Modesty, Morality

As in all his subsequent dealings with France, Ho Chi Minh's demands were a model of modesty.

- Wilfred Burchett

topic: Demand, France, Modesty, Dealings

Modesty is policy, no less than virtue.

- William Gilmore Simms

topic: Modesty, Virtue, Policy

No truly great person ever thought themselves so.

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent.

topic: Modesty, Great Person, Persons

- William Shenstone

topic: Prudent, Modesty, Be Careful, Amiable

No American worth his salt should go around looking for a root. I advance this in all modesty, as a not unreasonable opinion.

- Wyndham Lewis

topic: Roots, Salt, Modesty

If guys practiced self-control, 'modesty' wouldn't be such a huge deal.

- Zach Hunter

topic: Self, Guy, Modesty

A girl's modesty is first noted by her external presentation, but if it's not followed by the confidence of internal modesty, she still forfeits the power of her virtue.

- Dannah Gresh

topic: Girl, Firsts, Modesty, Forfeit

You cannot limit the power of your modesty to just what you wear. It is also controlled or forfeited by where you are willing to go with guys, why you go there, and how you act.

- Dannah Gresh

source: Dannah Gresh (2005). “Secret Keeper: The Delicate Power of Modesty”, p.68, Moody Publishers

topic: Guy, Limits, Modesty

Ambition is never modest. If modesty means to have middling success, then I can only say: I'm not interested.

- Emmanuel Macron

topic: Ambition, Mean, Modesty

Let your modesty be a sufficient incitement, yea, an exhortation to everyone to be at peace on their merely looking at you.

- Ignatius of Loyola

topic: Catholic, Modesty, Purity, Incitement, Catholic Saint

Gaming is the destruction of all decorum; the prince forgets at it his dignity, and the lady her modesty.

- Jean le Rond d'Alembert

topic: Gambling, Modesty, Dignity, Decorum, Gaming

It is strange that modesty is the rule for women when what they most value in men is boldness.

- Ninon de L'Enclos

topic: Men, Modesty, Strange

Modesty is great, and quietness is nice, but sometimes it's much more fun to be decadent.

- Robin Standefer

topic: Fun, Nice, Modesty, Decor

Style is to see beauty in modesty.

- Andree Putman

topic: Style, Modesty

By God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own modesty.

- Robert Clive

source: Quoted in G. R. Gleig, The Life of Robert, First Lord Clive (1848)

topic: Government, Modesty, Moments

Modesty in dress and language and deportment is a true mark of refinement and a hallmark of a virtuous Latter-day Saint woman.

- Ezra Taft Benson

source: Ezra Taft Benson (1990). “Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice”, Shadow Mountain

topic: Dresses, Saint, Modesty, Latter Days

Modesty is a diamond setting to female beauty.

- Fanny Kemble

topic: Female, Modesty, Diamond, Male Beauty, Female Beauty

Be a constant outrage to modesty There is nothing to fear: modesty is exercised only among the blind.

- Jean Cocteau

source: "Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

topic: Modesty, Blind, Outrage

False modesty is the refinement of vanity. It is a lie.

- Jean de la Bruyere

topic: Lying, Vanity, Modesty, False Modesty

A modest man never talks of himself.

- Jean de la Bruyere

topic: Men, Modesty, Modest

Excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation.

- Francis Bacon

source: Francis Bacon (1856). “Bacon's Essays”, p.478

topic: Art, Modesty, Wells, Ostentation

It rarely adds anything to say, "In my opinion" - not even modesty. Naturally a sentence is only your opinion; and you are not the Pope.

- Paul Goodman

source: Paul Goodman (1966). “Five years”

topic: Add, Modesty, Opinion

To the devil with false modesty.

- Stephen King

source: Stephen King (2008). “Carrie”, p.89, Anchor

topic: Devil, Modesty, False Modesty

Ha! for a divine and lordly manor, there is nothing like solid ground.

- Francois Rabelais

topic: Modesty, Divine

I have huge legs, and I never show them - not because of false modesty, I'm just not comfortable.

- Cheyenne Jackson

source: Interview With Karman Kregloe, www.newnownext.com. July 8, 2007.

topic: Legs, Modesty, Shows, False Modesty

Modesty is the key to success

- Paul the Apostle

topic: Keys, Modesty, Key To Success

What is modesty but inverted pride?

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1988). “A Man of the People”, p.11, Heinemann

topic: Pride, Modesty, Inverted

I prefer honest arrogance to hypocritical modesty.

- Frank Lloyd Wright

topic: Arrogance, Honest, Modesty

We must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

- Paulo Coelho

topic: Humility, Modesty, Honest, Servility, False Modesty

Had this author [Sir W Drummond Academical Questions, chap. iii.], instead of inveighing against the guilt and absurdity of atheism, demonstrated its falsehood, his conduct would have, been more suited to the modesty of the skeptic and the toleration of the philosopher.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

source: Percy Bysshe Shelley (2015). “The Necessity of Atheism”, p.12, Booklassic

topic: Guilt, Atheism, Modesty, Chaps

Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville.

- Jesse Jackson

source: "The preacher comes to town" by Laura Smith, www.theguardian.com. March 10, 2005.

topic: Positive, Jesus, Modesty, Bethlehem, Small Places

This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver.

The inclination to self-depreciation, to freely accepting being robbed, being duped, and being swindled, could be the modesty of a god among men.

source: Friedrich Nietzsche “Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche”, Delphi Classics

topic: Love, Hands, Modesty

Generally speaking, the greater a woman's beauty, the greater her modesty.

topic: Men, Self, Modesty, Depreciation, Inclination

When the gratitude that many owe to one discards all modesty, then there is fame.

topic: Beauty, Women, Modesty, Women Beauty, Women's Beauty

Impoliteness is frequently the sign of an awkward modesty that loses its head when surprised and hopes to conceal this with rudeness.

topic: Gratitude, Modesty, Fame

When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.

topic: Hope, Awkward, Modesty

- Tacitus

topic: Modesty, Lost, Chastity

Intellectual modesty is humility as to what I know; intellectual humility is modesty as to what I do not know

- Tariq Ramadan

topic: Humility, Intellectual, Modesty, Intellectual Humility

Modesty becomes a young man. [Lat., Adolescentem verecundum esse decet.]

- Plautus

topic: Men, Modesty, Young

Modesty should accompany youth.

- Plautus

topic: Modesty, Youth, Should, Accompany

Knowledge is a matter of science and no dishonesty or conceit whatsoever is permissible. What is required is definitely the reverse - honesty and modesty.

- Mao Zedong

source: Mao Tse-Tung, Zedong Mao (1977). “Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung”, Pergamon

topic: Honesty, Matter, Modesty

Modesty, that perennial flower planted instinctively in the human breast, blooms therein only as continence guards and virtue keeps.

- Amos Bronson Alcott

source: Amos Bronson Alcott (1877). “Table-talk”

topic: Flower, Modesty, Virtue

Modesty once lost, never returns into favour.

- Publilius Syrus

topic: Return, Favour, Modesty

Modesty is only arrogance by stealth.

- Terry Pratchett

topic: Arrogance, Modesty, Stealth

Modesty is that feeling by which honorable shame acquires a valuable and lasting authority.

The chief recommendation is modesty, then dutiful conduct toward parents, then affection for kindred.

source: "Rhetorical Invention", Book II, Section LVI, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 520-21,

topic: Feelings, Modesty, Shame

He who obeys with modesty appears worthy of being some day a commander.

topic: Parent, Modesty, Youth

Things that are in "bad taste" are often renegade and rebellious. They go against the status quo, and the laws of decorum and modesty. And that can be really thrilling.

source: "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, De Legibus, III. 2, p. 564, 1922.

topic: Modesty, Obedience, Worthy

- Margaret Cho

source: Source: www.guernicamag.com

topic: Law, Taste, Modesty, Renegades, Decorum

Modesty sets off one newly come to honour.

- George Herbert

source: George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.324

topic: Modesty, Honour

Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.

- John Adams

source: John Adams, Robert Joseph Taylor, Gregg L. Lint (1989). “Papers of John Adams”

topic: Modesty, Virtue, Thrive

Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by.

- Andre Maurois

topic: Men, Modesty, Praise, Unselfishness

'Infidel' is a term of reproach, which Christians and Mohammedans, in their modesty, agree to apply to those who differ from them.

- Thomas Huxley

topic: Christian, Infidelity, Modesty, Infidel

We did not lack modesty—on the contrary—but something urgently drove us to defy modesty together as immodestly as possible.

- Georges Bataille

source: Georges Bataille (1977). “Story of the eye”

topic: Together, Modesty, Contrary

Extreme vanity sometimes hides under the garb of ultra modesty.

- Anna Brownell Jameson

source: Anna Brownell Jameson (1877). “A commonplace book of thoughts, memories and fancies, original and selected”, p.1

topic: Vanity, Modesty, Sometimes, Ultras

Egotism is true modesty. In religious enquiry each of us can speak only for himself.

- John Henry Newman

topic: Religious, Enquiry, Modesty

A feminist is someone who loathes being a woman and who dislikes the chief feminine characteristics.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

topic: Feminist, Modesty, Being A Woman, Loathe

Modesty antedates clothes and will be resumed when clothes are no more.

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.

source: Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.281, Courier Corporation

topic: Fashion, Clothes, Modesty

- John Kenneth Galbraith

source: John Kenneth Galbraith, J. Ron Stanfield, Jacqueline Bloom Stanfield (2004). “Interviews with John Kenneth Galbraith”, p.197, Univ. Press of Mississippi

topic: Modesty, Virtue, Economy

Modesty died when clothes were born.

The convention missionaries call "modesty" has no standard, and cannot have one, because it is opposed to nature and reason and is therefore an artificiality and subject to anybody's whim - anybody's diseased caprice.

source: Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.281, Courier Corporation

topic: Fashion, Clothes, Modesty

The man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a fig-leaf.

topic: Modesty, Reason, Conventions, Artificiality

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

source: Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.281, Courier Corporation

topic: Inspirational, Men, Modesty, Ostentatious, Figs

- Tony Dungy

source: Tony Dungy, Nathan Whitaker (2011). “The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge”, p.693, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

topic: Humility, Tears, Modesty, True Humility, False Modesty

Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.

- Mary Wollstonecraft

source: Mary Wollstonecraft, Janet Todd (1999). “A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution”, p.200, Oxford Paperbacks

topic: Maturity, Vivacious, Modesty, Bashfulness

A modest demeanor arouses thoughts of seduction.

If modesty disappeared, so would exhibitionism.

topic: Seduction, Modesty, Modest, Demeanor

The modest youth somehow knows just what to do for the cameras.

topic: Exhibitionism, Literature, Modesty

When a modest man praises himself, people listen.

topic: Cameras, Modesty, Youth

No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools, for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one.

topic: Men, People, Modesty

- Arthur Schopenhauer

source: Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Wisdom of Life”, p.44, Cosimo Classics

topic: Doubt, Fool, Modesty

Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable.

- Richard Steele

topic: Beauty, Modesty, Wit

Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts; when it is ill-treated, it pines, it beseeches, it languishes.

- Richard Steele

source: Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison (1774). “The Tatler; Or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq”, p.106

topic: Modesty, Rage, Ill, Languish

The truth is a young maiden as modest as she is beautiful, and therefore she is always seen cloaked.

- Umberto Eco

source: Umberto Eco (2006). “The Island of the Day Before”, p.132, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Beautiful, Modesty, Truth Is, She Is Beautiful

If a young lady has that discretion and modesty without which all knowledge is little worth, she will never make an ostentatious parade of it, because she will rather be intent on acquiring more than on displaying what she has.

- Hannah More

source: Hannah More (1835). “The works of Hannah More”, p.344

topic: Littles, Modesty, Parades, Ostentatious

When writing about oneself, one must strive to be truthful. Truth is more important than modesty.

- Roald Dahl

source: Roald Dahl (2009). “Boy: Tales of Childhood”, p.41, Penguin

topic: Writing, Important, Modesty

I don't think modesty is a very good virtue, if it is a virtue at all. A modest person will drop the modesty in a minute. It's a learned affectation.

- Maya Angelou

source: "Maya Angelou on Integrity", www.achievement.org.

topic: Thinking, Modesty, Virtue

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

- Joseph Addison

source: Joseph Addison (1721). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq”, p.560

topic: Modesty, Virtue, Betray

Thy modesty 's a candle to thy merit.

- Henry Fielding

source: Henry Fielding, Arthur Murphy (1784). “Plays”, p.467

topic: Merit, Modesty, Candle

Modesty and diffidence make a man unfit for public affairs; they also make him unfit for brothels.

- Walter Savage Landor

source: Walter Savage Landor (1853). “Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans”, p.81

topic: Men, Modesty, Affair, Brothels, Diffidence

And Modesty, who, when she goes, Is gone for ever.

- Walter Savage Landor

source: Walter Savage Landor (1831). “Gebir, Count Julian: And Other Poems”, p.357

topic: Gone, Modesty

Silence and modesty are very valuable qualities in conversation.

- Michel de Montaigne

topic: Silence, Quality, Modesty

Remember that with her clothes a woman puts off her modesty.

- Herodotus

source: Herodotus (1806). “Herodotus: A sketch of the life of Herodotus. Chio. Euterpe. v. 2. Euterpe continued. Thalia. Melpomene. v. 3. Melpomene continued. Terpsichore. Erato. Polymnia. v. 4. Polymnia continued. Urania. Calliope. Index”, p.39

topic: Clothes, Modesty, Remember

In the Western standards of modesty, there are different guidelines.

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

topic: Basketball, Different, Modesty

The darts of love are blunted by maiden modesty.

- Miguel de Cervantes

topic: Love, Modesty, Maidens, Darts

There are as many kinds of modesty as there are races. To the English woman it is a duty; to the French woman a propriety.

- Hippolyte Taine

source: Hippolyte Taine (1875). “Notes on Paris”, p.317

topic: Race, French Woman, Modesty

The modest person is usually admired, if people ever hear of them.

- E. W. Howe

topic: Humility, People, Modesty

The good we do to others is spoilt unless we efface ourselves so completely that those we help have no sense of inferiority.

- Honore de Balzac

source: Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.202, The Floating Press

topic: Inferiority, Helping, Modesty, Spoilt

Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person

- Horace

topic: Literature, Sullen, Modesty

What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?

- Horace

source: "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 520-21, Carmina, I. 24. 6, 1922.

topic: Justice, Modesty, Found

But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease.

- William Cowper

source: William Cowper, John William Cunningham (1835). “The works ¬of William Cowper: Poems : with an essay on the genius and poetry of Cowper”, p.158

topic: Mean, Ease, Modesty

Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.

The affected modesty of most women is a decoy for the generous, the delicate, and unsuspecting; while the artful, the bold, and unfeeling either see or break through its slender disguises.

source: William Hazlitt (1848). “The Miscellaneous Works”, p.108

topic: Real, Humility, Modesty, Deficiency, Undervalued

True modesty and true pride are much the same thing: both consist in setting a just value on ourselves - neither more nor less.

source: William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.475

topic: Women, Break Through, Modesty, Slender, Unsuspecting