Bashfulness Quotes:

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

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

- Mark Twain

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Motivational, Humorous Birthday, Staying Young

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

- Aristotle

topic: Philosophical, Age, Ornaments, Reproach, Bashfulness

Not that I am ashamed of my mind or body, my birth or breeding, my actions or fortunes, for my bashfulness is in my nature, not for any crime.

- Margaret Cavendish

topic: Mind, Body, Action, Bashfulness

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders.

- Joseph Addison

topic: Acceptance, Awkward, Merit, Patron, Awkwardness

Shyness is a curious thing, because, like quicksand, it can strike people at any time, and also, like quicksand, it usually makes its victims look down.

- Daniel Handler

topic: People, Musician, Novelists, Bashfulness

In the bottle discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence.

- Samuel Johnson

source: Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt (1854). “Johnson's Lives of the British Poets”, p.66

topic: Confidence, Comfort, Bottles, Bashfulness

He, full of bashfulness and truth, loved much, hoped little, and desired naught.

- Torquato Tasso

source: Torquato Tasso, “Jerusalem Delivered - Book 02 - Part 02”

topic: Littles, Truth Love, Bashfulness

Nor do we accept, as genuine the person not characterized by this blushing bashfulness, this youthfulness of heart, this sensibility to the sentiment of suavity and self-respect. Modesty is bred of self-reverence. Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds. None are truly great without this ornament.

- Amos Bronson Alcott

topic: Heart, Self, Mind, Bashfulness, Youthfulness

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

- Henry Ford

topic: Inspirational, Life, Birthday, Staying Young, Stay In School

Women who are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest; and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a total ignorance of vice.

- Charles Caleb Colton

source: Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.309

topic: Ignorance, Vices, Principles, Demeanor, Bashful

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

- Aristotle

topic: Art, Philosophy, Philosophical, Fine Arts, Inspiration And Art

Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese. Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

- Jack Benny

topic: Mind, Age, Matter, Humorous Birthday, Staying Young

Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

- Samuel Johnson

source: Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.285

topic: Sorrow, May, Sometimes, Bashfulness

All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood.

- George S. Patton

topic: Military, Fighting, Men, Manliness, Bashful

There are two distinct sorts of what we call bashfulness; this, the awkwardness of a booby, which a few steps into the world will convert into the pertness of a coxcomb; that, a consciousness, which the most delicate feelings produce, and the most extensive knowledge cannot always remove.

- Henry Mackenzie

source: Henry Mackenzie (1836). “The Miscellaneous Works of Henry Mackenzie”, p.22

topic: Two, Feelings, World, Bashfulness

No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with his merit, panting with expectation, and hushed with attention, easily terrifies himself with the dread of disappointing them, and strains his imagination in pursuit of something that may vindicate the veracity of fame, and show that his reputation was not gained by chance.

- Samuel Johnson

topic: Imagination, Expectations, Arrogance, Bashfulness

So sweet the blush of bashfulness, E'en pity scarce can wish it less!

- Lord Byron

source: George Gordon Byron, “The Bride Of Abydos”

topic: Sweet, Wish, Pity, Blushing, Bashfulness

Bashfulness is more frequently connected with good sense than we find assurance; and impudence, on the other hand, is often the mere effect of downright stupidity.

- William Shenstone

source: William Shenstone (1804). “Essays on Men and Manners”, p.66

topic: Hands, Stupidity, Assurance, Impudence, Bashfulness

I am not likely to die of bashfulness but neither am I prepared to be crucified to attest the perfection of my art. I dislike to hear of any stray heroics on the prowl for me.

- James Joyce

topic: Art, Perfection, Prepared, Bashfulness

As those that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the gods, prop up such parts as are contiguous to them; so, in undermining bashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good-nature and humanity.

- Plutarch

source: Plutarch (1871). “Plutarch's Morals”, p.62

topic: House, Humanity, Temples, Bashfulness

Bashfulness is not becoming to maidenhood, though modesty always is.

- Margaret of Valois

topic: Bashfulness

We have in England a particular bashfulness in every thing that regards religion.

- Joseph Addison

topic: England, Particular, Bashfulness

Perhaps a maiden's bashfulness is more A matron's lesson than our lips aver.

- Alfred Austin

topic: Lessons, Lips, Maidens, Bashfulness

When I was small, my most serious handicap was a painful bashfulness in the presence of strangers.

- George McGovern

topic: Serious, Painful, Stranger, Bashfulness

As to the human race. There are many pretty and winning things about the human race. It is perhaps the poorest of all the inventions of all the gods but it has never suspected it once. There is nothing prettier than its naive and complacent appreciation of itself. It comes out frankly and proclaims without bashfulness or any sign of a blush that it is the noblest work of God. It has had a billion opportunities to know better, but all signs fail with this ass. I could say harsh things about it but I cannot bring myself to do it-it is like hitting a child.

- Mark Twain

source: Mark Twain, Charles Neider (1987). “The outrageous Mark Twain: some lesser-known but extraordinary works : with "Reflections on religion" now in book form for the first time”, Doubleday Books

topic: Appreciation, Children, Winning, Bashfulness

Education is the best provision for old age.

- Aristotle

topic: Graduation, Education, Teaching, Inspirational Educational, Inspirational Graduation

Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. These people are Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying the books of law, and memorizing the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though they are assiduous in attending prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and, even if one desired to do so, her family would not allow her to go. The women have their 'friends' and 'companions' amongst the men outside their own families.

- Ibn Battuta

topic: Prayer, Husband, Book, Bashfulness, Surpassing