Modest Quotes

• A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

  Confucius

  Love, Inspirational, Funny

  Confucius “The Analects”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest.

  Orson Welles

  Tough, Bigs

  Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich (1992). “This is Orson Welles”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.

  Paul Cezanne

  Strength, Awareness, Spiritual Awareness

  63 Copy quote

• Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Inspirational, Travel, Adventure

  138 Copy quote

• Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.

  William Shakespeare

  Wise, Doubt, Beacons

  William Shakespeare (2016). “The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works”, p.1931, Oxford University Press

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• Be modest, humble, simple. Control your anger.

  Abraham Cahan

  Humble, Simple, Be Humble

  Abraham Cahan (2013). “The Rise of David Levinsky”, p.43, Courier Corporation

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• Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Challenges, Rich, Grew Up

  Transcript of Obama-Sotomayor announcement, www.cnn.com. May 26, 2009.

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• Leaders should be collaborative, modest, and generous

  Bill Bradley

  Teamwork, Leader, Collaboration

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• To test a modest man's modesty do not investigate if he ignores applause, find out if he abides criticism.

  Franz Grillparzer

  Humility, Pride, Men

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• In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.

  Socrates

  Life, Childhood, Age

  58 Copy quote

• The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire, and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows.

  Milton Glaser

  Real, Independent, Persistence

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• Examples would indeed be excellent things were not people so modest that none will set, and so vain that none will follow them.

  Augustus Hare

  People, Example, Excellent

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• I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. My background was modest, and I worked at a Portuguese bakery in town.

  Emeril Lagasse

  Fall, Rivers, Massachusetts

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• I grew up in a very modest house. We were poor-we lived on the poverty level. We all got jobs as young kids.

  Chely Wright

  Jobs, Kids, House

  7 Copy quote

• He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

  Confucius

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Confucius, Mencius, Ssǔ shu, Wu king, Shu Ching (1861). “The Chinese Classics”, p.148

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• A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Wise, Men, Doe

  60 Copy quote

• The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

  Confucius

  Life, Success, Philosophical

  Confucius (2012). “The Analects of Confucius In Plain and Simple English: BookCaps Study Guide”, BookCaps Study Guides

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• Be modest, be respectful of others, try to understand.

  Lakhdar Brahimi

  Respect, Understanding, Tolerance

  68 Copy quote

• I just owe almost everything to my father and it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Family, Daughter, Fathers Day

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• It well becomes a young man to be modest.

  Plautus

  Men, Young, Wells

  Titus Maccius Plautus (1874). “Comedies of Plautus”, p.260

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• Oh my goodness gracious, what you can buy off the Internet in terms of overhead photography. A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just by punching on his mouse, for a relatively modest cost.

  Donald Rumsfeld

  Photography, Cost, World

  Donald Rumsfeld (2001). “Public Statements of Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, 2001”

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• The true colour of life is the colour of the body, the colour of the covered red, the implicit and not explicit red of the living heart and the pulses. It is the modest colour of the unpublished blood.

  Alice Meynell

  Heart, Blood, Color

  Alice Meynell (2013). “The Essential Alice Meynell Collection”, p.115, eBookIt.com

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• No girl who is well bred, 'kind, and modest, is ever offensively plain; all real deformity means want of manners, or of heart.

  John Ruskin

  Real, Heart, Mean

  "Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain".

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• No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Men, Modesty, Fortune

  Mary Wortley Montagu (2015). “Letters”, p.115, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

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• Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Sarcastic, Sarcasm, People

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2013). “The Greatest Works of Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment + The Brother's Karamazov + The Idiot + Notes from Underground + The Gambler + Demons (The Possessed / The Devils)”, p.2157, e-artnow

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