Quotes About Humility

The anthropologists got it wrong when they named our species Homo sapiens ('wise man'). In any case it's an arrogant and bigheaded thing to say, wisdom being one of our least evident features. In reality, we are Pan narrans, the storytelling chimpanzee.

Modesty is only arrogance by stealth.

Sometimes I think a man could wander across the disc all his life and not see everything there is to see,' said Twoflower. 'And now it seems there are lots of other worlds as well. When I think I might die without seeing a hundredth of all there is to see it makes me feel,' he paused, then added, 'well, humble, I suppose. And very angry, of course.

You call yourself some kind of goddess and you know nothing, madam, nothing. What don't die can't live. What don't live can't change. What don't change can't learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you.

Don't do anything I wouldn't do, if you ever find anything I wouldn't do.

Pride is all very well, but a sausage is a sausage.

Stand before your god, bow before your king, kneel before your man.

If you have let pride get the better of you, then you have already lost, but if you grab pride by the scruff of the neck and ride it like a stallion, then you may have already won.

I see embarrassment among all of you. That's good. The thing about being embarrassed is that sooner or later you aren't, but you remember that you were.

He was, he would be the first to admit, a coward, an incompetent, and not even very good at being a failure.

I'm not cruel, sir, I won't shoot you in the guts, but I will make you realize how much you took your toes for granted.

Things like crowns had a troublesome effect on clever folk; it was best to leave all the reigning to the kind of people whose eyebrows met in the middle when they tried to think. In a funny sort of way, they were much better at it.

He stared at his feet. "I'm still very ignorant," he said, "but at least I'm ignorant about really important things.

Are you a hero, actually?" "Um, no. Not as such. Not at all, really. Even less than that, in fact.

I wouldn't say I'm the best, she said, but I can't think of anyone better, I have to say.

Ye mustn't be afraid to ask for help. Pride is a good thing, my girl, but it will kill you in time.

Nanny Ogg scowled and said, Granny never said as she was better than others. She just got on with it and showed 'em and people worked it out for themselves.

Universities are truly storehouses for knowledge: students arrive from school confident they know nearly everything, and they leave five years later certain that they know practically nothing. Where did the knowledge go in the meantime? In the university, of course, where it is dried and stored.

Stand before your god, bow before your king, and kneel before your man. Recipe for a happy life, that is

He knew that they all knew a lot more than he knew, and was quite happy knowing this.

Every time I pass church I stop and make a visit So when I'm carried in feet first God won't say, Who is it?

I wonder what would happen if you gave up your need to be right?

We are contemporary citizens living in a technological world. Swimming in crosscultural waters can be dangerous, and if you are honest you can't stay there very long. Sooner or later you have to look at your own reflection and decide what to do with yourself. We are urban people. We make periodic pilgrimages to the country. . . . If we align ourselves with the spirit of place we will find humility fused with joy. The land holds stories.

It's strange how deserts turn us into believers. I believe in walking in a landscape of mirages, because you learn humility. I believe in living in a land of little water because life is drawn together. And I believe in the gathering of bones as a testament to spirits that have moved on. If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self.