Modesty Quotes

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
― Harry S. Truman

“It's not much of a tail, but I'm sort of attached to it.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.”
― Ronald Reagan

“I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“I am sufficiently proud of my knowing something to be modest about my not knowing all.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

“My value as a woman is not measured by the size of my waist or the number of men who like me. My worth as a human being is measured on a higher scale: a scale of righteousness and piety. And my purpose in life-despite what fashion magazines say-is something more sublime than just looking good for men.”
― Yasmin Mogahed, Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles

“Having a low opinion of yourself is not 'modesty.' It's self-destruction. Holding your uniqueness in high regard is not 'egotism.' It's a necessary precondition to happiness and success.”
― Bobbe Sommer

“Now. Now, Annwyl. No need to curtsy. A simple nod of your head and absolute worship will be more than enough.”
― G.A. Aiken, Dragon Actually

“He didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter.”
― Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit

“Modesty is invisibility...Never forget it. To be seen—to be seen—is to be...penetrated. What you must be girls, is impenetrable.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim—so modestly and so humbly—to possess. It is time to withdraw our 'respect' from such fantastic claims, all of them aimed at the exertion of power over other humans in the real and material world.”
― Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

“That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“You cannot be truly humble, unless you truly believe that life can and will go on without you.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“You might want to put some clothes on' suggested Jace 'I'm all for the bra and panties look, but you don't want the Silent Brothers to die of excitement”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Fallen Angels

“Modesty is only arrogance by stealth.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Long Earth

“He slowed down a bit more. "Gaia, how do you know these things?" She shrugged. "I'm smart." "And modest, too." "Modesty is a waste of time," she pronounced. "I'll keep that in mind.”
― Francine Pascal, Fearless

“I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.”
― Coco Chanel

“Immodest and attractive is easy. Modest and repulsive is easy too. But modest and attractive is an art form.”
― Douglas Wilson, 5 Paths to the Love of Your Life: Defining Your Dating Style

“[A Letter to the Culture that Raised Me] I'm not here to be on display. And my body is not for public consumption. I will not be reduced to an object, or a pair of legs to sell shoes. I'm a soul, a mind, a servant of God. My worth is defined by the beauty of my soul, my heart, my moral character. So I won't worship your beauty standards, and I don't submit to your fashion sense. My submission is to something higher.”
― Yasmin Mogahed, Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles

“Then he kissed her. Betsy didn't believe in letting boys kiss you. She thought it was silly to be letting first this boy and then that one kiss you, when it didn't mean a thing. But it was wonderful when Joe Willard kissed her. And it did mean a thing.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Joe

“If you lose your integrity, you will also lose your identity, your sensitivity and your dignity. Integrity is honesty, modesty and security in all kinds of weather. It should be our priority!”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.

Imperial Hotel note paper, Tokyo Japan, 1922”
― Albert Einstein

“Modesty answers not the crude how of femininity, but the beautiful why.”
― Wendy Shalit, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue

“Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.
Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your rainment.
For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.
Some of you say 'It is the north wind who has woven the clothes we wear.'
And I say, 'Ay, it was the north wind, but shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread.'
And when his work was done he laughed in the forest.
Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.
And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
― Gibran, Kahlil Gibran

“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.”
― Confucius, The Sayings of Confucius

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“It's like the old question, "Do you lock your house to keep people out, or to protect what's inside?" Should a person act modestly and dress modestly in order to prevent intrusion from the outside, undesirable things from happening, or to preserve and maintain what is inside: the delicate and sensitive ability to have and maintain an intimate relationship.”
― Manis Friedman, Doesn't Anyone Blush Anymore: Love, Marriage and the Art of Intimacy

“The prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to understand whatever he professes to understand, and not merely to persuade other people that he understands it; and though his talents may not always be very brilliant, they are always perfectly genuine. He neither endeavours to impose upon you by the cunning devices of an artful impostor, nor by the arrogant airs of an assuming pedant, nor by the confident assertions of a superficial and imprudent pretender. He is not ostentatious even of the abilities which he really possesses. His conversation is simple and modest, and he is averse to all the quackish arts by which other people so frequently thrust themselves into public notice and reputation.”
― Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

“The best protection against rape, stalking, and domestic violence is to raise men who both understand that women are different, and would never dare take advantage of this difference.”
― Wendy Shalit, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue

“When virtue and modesty enlighten her charms, the lustre of a beautiful woman is brighter than the stars of heaven, and the influence of her power it is in vain to resist.”
― Akhenaton