Quotes About Self-effacement

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12).

I don't really want to be the centre of attention.

I'm not a person who wants to be the centre of attention or anything like that.

This is the deal: we are happy to single out people as superior just as long as they don't accept the description themselves. We want heroes and idols, but we also want egalitarianism, and that requires proclamations of humility from our gods.

A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.

I cannot hope that what I have to say will be very interesting to many.

He was a past master of making himself seem insignificant, of seeming invisible.

Love, even universal love, the kind of love with which she felt herself flooded, should not be tried. Much patience and self-effacement were needed for successful married sleep. Placidity; a steady faith; these too were needed.

I don't like when people minimize their gifts. There is a difference between humility and insecurity, and self-effacement does no one any favors. We teach our watching children to doubt and excuse and diminish themselves.

It's always embarrassing when somebody does something praiseworthy of you.

It's not my personality to brag in any way or be pretentious. It's just not my nature.

I have a dread of sounding pretentious and try not to talk too much about what I do.

Head down, hoodie up, eyes on the ground. Be unimportant. Blend in. Disappear. That was how you avoided the bullies.

Ever since then, I've done what I could to be pleasant and quiet, making myself as small and unseen as possible.

I felt better being in the background. That's the way I like it.

So much of my life has been about self-effacement, pretense, masquerading, concealment, and indirection.

I mostly wear hats or put scarves over my head because I like to have a low profile when I go out.

He hunched his shoulders and tried to make himself smaller in the seat. He wanted to disappear, to fade away, not to exist.

There was never any comfortable way to mention or discuss one's successes without breaking the rule against bragging, even if one didn't mean to.

Modesty is the key to success

She was so quiet. So reflective. And she could erase herself, her spirit, with a swiftness that truly startled, when she knew the people around her could not respect it.

Modesty's for folk with nothing to boast of.

On the whole, I think I spent a lot of high school just trying to stay under the radar: I don't think I was all that memorable.

There's nothing more insufferable than people who boast about their own humility.