quotations about modesty
Modesty shields a man from mortifications and disappointments, which assail the self-conceited man in every direction; a modest man conciliates the esteem even of an enemy and a rival; he disarms the resentments of those who feel themselves most injured by his superiority; he makes all pleased with him by making them at ease with themselves.
GEORGE CRABB
English Synonymes Explained
The beauty of modesty ... a virtue the world doesn't have much truck with: one ordinary flower in a vase, as opposed to a bouquet.
ANNE LAMOTT
Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
Is it possible that God permitted the violets of modesty, that grow and shed their perfume in the maiden's heart, to be trampled beneath the brutal feet of lust? If this was the order of God, what, under the same circumstances, would have been the command of a devil?
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
Some Mistakes of Moses
When one remains modest, not after praise but after blame, then is he really so.
JEAN PAUL RICHTER
Hesperus
Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.
OLIVER HERFORD
The Deb's Dictionary
Modesty is a sweet song-bird no open cage-door can tempt to flight.
HAFIZ
attributed, Day's Collacon
What is modesty? Is it not a sense of excellence so deep and true that the observance of duty appears a natural thing? Is it not so sincere a desire for what is excellent, that what is wanting is much more perceptible than what is already obtained? Is it not so pure a love for what is good, that it forgets the reward reserved for merit, in the approbation of others?
LUCY HUTCHINSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Modest expression is a beautiful setting to the diamond of talent and genius.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
It is proper to leave an abundance of modesty, rather than gold to children.
PLATO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Modesty antedates clothes and will be resumed when clothes are no more.
MARK TWAIN
"Memoranda", Biography of Mark Twain
Modesty is the richest ornament of a woman ... the want of it is her greatest deformity.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Modesty is the appendage of sobriety, and is to chastity, to temperance, and to humility as fringes are to a garment.
JEREMY TAYLOR
The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying
What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?
HORACE
Carmina
He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.
JAMES THOMSON
The Seasons
Modesty becomes a young man.
PLAUTUS
Asinaria
Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
BIBLE
Matthew 23:12
The little respect paid to chastity in the male world is, I am persuaded, the grand source of many of the physical and moral evils that torment mankind, as well as of the vices and follies that degrade and destroy women; yet, at school, boys infallibly lose that decent bashfulness, which might have ripened into modesty at home.
MARY SHELLEY
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Deserted Village
I see no point in being modest about things you know you do well. It doesn't indicate humility so much as hypocrisy or lack of perception.
LOUISE DICKINSON RICH
We Took to the Woods
Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE
The Characters or Manners of the Present Age