Quotes and Sayings about Modesty
"Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue."
- Joseph Addison
(Related: Virtue, Modesty)
"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
(Related: Power, Virtue, Heaven, Influence, Modesty, Stars, Woman)
"You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, and the great charm of all power is modesty."
- Louisa May Alcott
(Related: Power, Talent, Genius, Charm, Conceit, Danger, Gifts, Goodness, Modesty, Will)
"Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty."
- Louisa May Alcott
(Related: Power, Talent, Genius, Charm, Conceit, Consciousness, Danger, Goodness, Modesty, Will)
"I think that for the highest achievements nowadays... need to have the stable as a rock scientific base. And also need to own modesty."
- Alexander Alekhine
(Related: Modesty)
"His modesty amounts to deformity."
- Margot Asquith
(Related: Modesty)
"Modesty is the conscience of the body."
- Honore de Balzac
(Related: Body, Conscience, Modesty)
"No age, sex, or condition is above or below the absolute necessity of modesty; but without it one is vastly beneath the rank of man."
- Bernard Barton
(Related: Age, Sex, Man, Modesty, Necessity, Rank)
"No sex, age, or condition is above or below the absolute necessity of modesty; but without it one vastly beneath the rank of man."
- Bruce Barton
(Related: Age, Sex, Man, Modesty, Necessity, Rank)
"The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Balance, Conceit, Modesty, Popularity)
"Modesty is my best quality."
- Jack Benny
(Related: Quality, Modesty)
"At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings."
- Hector Berlioz
(Related: Modesty)
"As in all his subsequent dealings with France, Ho Chi Minh's demands were a model of modesty."
- Wilfred Burchett
(Related: France, Modesty)
"In all modesty, we must admit that governments are not always the best doctors when it comes to diagnosing economic ailments and prescribing the right treatment."
- Kim Campbell
(Related: Doctors, Modesty, Right, Treatment)
"Modesty, tis a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world."
- Miguel De Cervantes
(Related: Virtue, Modesty, Poets, World)
"Modesty used to be considered a natural female attribute. No more."
- Linda Chavez
(Related: Modesty)
"Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise."
- Lord Chesterfield
(Related: Modesty, Praise)
"Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either."
- Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
(Related: Modesty, Sincerity)
"Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the imperfections of our nature; which one would think, might dispose us to modesty."
- Jeremy Collier
(Related: Nature, Conviction, Learning, Modesty)
"He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good."
- Confucius
(Related: Modesty, Will, Words)
"If modesty disappeared, so would exhibitionism."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Modesty)
"One of the problems with sex education... is that it also strips kids - especially girls - of their modesty to have every detail of anatomy, physiology and condom usage made explicit."
- James Dobson
(Related: Education, Sex, Detail, Girls, Kids, Modesty, Problems)
"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
(Related: Candor, Judgment, Modesty)
"Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue."
- John Kenneth Galbraith
(Related: Virtue, Modesty)
"Good taste is the modesty of the mind; that is why it cannot be either imitated or acquired."
- Delphine de Girardin
(Related: Mind, Modesty, Taste)
"With sincere modesty, if there is such a thing, I have never thought of legacy at all. I am always grateful if people like what I have done. A legacy is something no one can forsee."
- Tom Glazer
(Related: Thought, People, Modesty)
"Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues."
- Oliver Goldsmith
(Related: Modesty)
"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
(Related: Modesty, Opinion)
"To test a modest man's modesty do not investigate if he ignores applause, find out if he abides criticism."
- Franz Grillparzer
(Related: Applause, Criticism, Man, Modesty)
"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
(Related: Beauty, Cosmetics, Humility, Modesty, Purity, Spirit, Temper, Temperance)
"Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it."
- Oliver Herford
(Related: Art, Charm)
"Remember that with her clothes a woman puts off her modesty."
- Herodotus
(Related: Clothes, Modesty, Woman)
"Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it make us vain, in fact, of our modesty."
- Louis Kronenberger
(Related: Fact, Modesty, Nothing, Vanity)
"I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes."
- Yves Saint Laurent
(Related: Sex, Hope, Clothes, Expression, Modesty, Sex appeal, Simplicity)
"I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes."
- Yves Saint Laurent
(Related: Sex, Hope, Clothes, Expression, Modesty, Sex appeal, Simplicity)
"No education can be of true advantage to young women but that which trains them up in humble industry, in great plainness of living, in exact modesty of dress."
- William Law
(Related: Education, Women, Dress, Living, Modesty)
"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 Legeti
(Related: Home, Work, Famous, Modesty)
"It is strange that modesty is the rule for women when what they most value in men is boldness."
- Ninon de Lenclos
(Related: Men, Women, Boldness, Modesty, Value)
"It is strange that modesty is the rule for women when what they most value in men is boldness."
- Ninon de Lenclos
(Related: Men, Women, Boldness, Modesty, Value)
"I do not believe in sex distinction in literature, law, politics, or trade - or that modesty and virtue are more becoming to women than to men, but wish we had more of it everywhere."
- Belva Lockwood
(Related: Women, Politics, Sex, Virtue, Law, Literature, Modesty, Trade)
"Because impudence is a vice, it does not follow that modesty is a virtue; it is built upon shame, a passion in our nature, and may be either good or bad according to the actions performed from that motive."
- Bernard de Mandeville
(Related: Nature, Virtue, Actions, May, Modesty, Motive, Passion, Shame, Vice)
"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
(Related: Conscience, Fidelity, Modesty)
"Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Men, Modesty, Praise)
"True it is that covetousness is rich, modesty starves."
- John Milton
(Related: Covetousness, Modesty)
"Some are blessed with musical ability, others with good looks. Myself, I was blessed with modesty."
- Roger Moore
(Related: Ability, Modesty)
"Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life."
- Nam June Paik
(Related: Life, War, Progress, Jobs, Modesty)
"We must watch over our modesty in the presence of those who cannot understand its grounds."
- Jean Rostand
(Related: Modesty)
"Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Knowledge, Children, Evil, Man, Modesty)
""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
(Related: Appetite, Drinking, Eating, Modesty, Restraint)
"With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy."
- Arthur Schopenhauer
(Related: Talent, People, Honesty, Ability, Hypocrisy, Modesty)
"I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way - I hope it never will."
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Related: People, Hope, Modesty, Thinking, Will, Word)
"Modesty forbids what the law does not."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Law, Modesty)
"Modesty is a quality in a lover more praised by the women than liked."
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
(Related: Women, Quality, Modesty)
"Modesty is the color of virtue."
- Diogenes of Sinope
(Related: Virtue, Modesty)
"I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty... but I am too busy thinking about myself."
- Edith Sitwell
(Related: Time, Modesty, Thinking)
"Loquacity storms the ear, but modesty takes the heart."
- Robert South
(Related: Heart, Loquacity, Modesty, Storms)
"Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable."
- Richard Steele
(Related: Beauty, Modesty, Nothing, Wit)
"As blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense."
- Jonathan Swift
(Related: Fool, Man, May, Modesty, Sense, Will, Woman)
"Modesty should be typical of the success of a champion."
- Major Taylor
(Related: Success, Modesty)
"To forgive and to be forgiven are the two points of holy magnificence and holy modesty; round these two centres the whole doctrine of largesse revolves."
- Charles Williams
(Related: Doctrine, Magnificence, Modesty)