Modest Quotes - Page 18

• I will continue to distribute blankets, sleeping bags, warm clothing and food on a regular basis, in the hope that my modest efforts will give some comfort to those people we are able help.

  Mohamed Al-Fayed

  Inspirational, Sleep, People

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• I want to remind you that success in life is based on hard slogging. There will be periods when discouragement is great and upsetting, and the antidote for this is calmness and fortitude and a modest yet firm belief in your competence. Be sure that your priorities are in order so that you can proceed in a logical manner, and be ever mindful that nothing will take the place of persistence.

  Walter Annenberg

  Inspirational, Persistence, Order

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• History is now strictly organized, powerfully disciplined, but it possesses only a modest educational value and even less conscious social purpose.

  J. H. Plumb

  Educational, History, Purpose

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• It may not be irrelevant to note that even very modest forms of life, like earthworms, dung beetles and fiddler crabs, have no trouble identifying the real problems they must deal with if they are to survive.

  Edward Goldsmith

  Nature, Real, Animal

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• The U.S. public is depoliticised, poorly informed on foreign affairs... and strongly patriotic in the face of a struggle with another Hitler. Even though the public is normally averse to war, even with modest propaganda efforts... the public can be quickly transformed into enthusiastic supporters of war.

  Edward S. Herman

  War, Struggle, Patriotic

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• Any human being is really good at certain things. The problem is that the things you're good at come naturally. And since most people are pretty modest instead of an arrogant S.O.B. like me, what comes naturally, you don't see as a special skill. It's just you. It's what you've always done.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Work, Passion, Skills

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• If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.

  Albert Einstein

  Teacher, Science, Men

  Quoted in Reporter, 18 Nov. 1954

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• What an artist worries about as he plans his pictures, makes his sketches, or wonders whether he has completed his canvas, is something much more difficult to put into words. Perhaps he would say he worries about whether he has got it 'right'.

  Ernst Gombrich

  Mean, Artist, Worry

  "The story of art".

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• America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist.

  Carlisle Floyd

  Artist, America, Talent

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• When blessed with wealth, let them withdraw from the competition of vanity and be modest, retiring from ostentation, and not be the slaves of fashion.

  William Wilberforce

  Fashion, Blessed, Vanity

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• He was not a modest man. Contemplating suicide, he summoned a dragon.' Gothos' Folly

  Steven Erikson

  Suicide, Men, Dragons

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• Also, you may not have noticed, but this is a cupboard." "I admit that our private office is of modest dimensions," Kami told him, "But that's the way we like it. Just because we're editors doesn't mean we need special privileges. We're not snobs.

  Sarah Rees Brennan

  Mean, Editors, Office

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• You will be interested to hear, Hilary, that it [the drug] had a most remarkable effect — even on Selena after a very modest quantity. She cast off all conventional restraints and devoted herself without shame to the pleasure of the moment." I asked for particulars of this uncharacteristic conduct. "She took from her handbag a paperback edition of Pride and Prejudice and sat on the sofa reading it, declining all offers of conversation.

  Sarah Caudwell

  Reading, Pride, Drug

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• Jill was tall and slim, like most Moroi. With that figure came a modest chest. Angeline's chest...was not so modest.

  Richelle Mead

  Slim, Figures, Tall

  Richelle Mead (2012). “The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel”, p.29, Penguin

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• I prefer by far the warmth and softness to mere brilliancy and coldness. Some people remind me of sharp dazzling diamonds. Valuable but lifeless and loveless. Others, of the simplest field flowers, with hearts full of dew and with all the tints of celestial beauty reflected in their modest petals.

  Anais Nin

  Love, Flower, Heart

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• Jared had his back to the wall, which Kami thought was a reflex when he was uncomfortable. She wanted to shield him. “He was doing some—Zen jogging,” she claimed. Jared flicked her an incredulous glance. “Yes,” he said slowly. “Zen jogging. I wasn’t wearing that many clothes because—that’s part of the process. You’re meant to commune with the elements. Normally, I wouldn’t have worn my jeans, but I put them on because I know the English are a modest people.

  Sarah Rees Brennan

  Wall, Jeans, Clothes

  Sarah Rees Brennan (2012). “Unspoken”, p.83, Simon and Schuster

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• They were the reason that he kept faith with his stars, that reinforced him in his belief that the universe had more in store for him than the mug's game of working for a modest salary until he retired or died.

  J. K. Rowling

  Stars, Games, Salary

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• There's no time to be modest. Reason will not work here. Without warning, I kiss Kartik. His lips, pressed firmly against mine, are a surprise. They are warm, light as breath, firm as the give of a peach against my mouth. A scent like scorched cinnamon hangs in the air, but I'm not falling into any vision. It's his smell in me. A smell that makes my stomach drop through my feet. A smell that pushes all thought out of my head and replaces it with an overpowering hunger for more.

  Libba Bray

  Fall, Kissing, Light

  Libba Bray (2010). “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, p.133, Simon and Schuster

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• And if anyone asks what became of me, you relate my life in all its wonder, and end it with a simple and modest "He died.

  Suzanne Weyn

  Simple, Wonder, Ends

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• I was modest--they accused me of being crafty: I became secretive. I felt deeply good and evil--nobody caressed me, everybody offended me: I became rancorous. I was gloomy--other children were merry and talkative. I felt myself superior to them--but was considered inferior: I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world--none understood me: and I learned to hate.

  Mikhail Lermontov

  Children, Hate, Evil

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• You are a sick, sick man,” I told him. “Thank you,” Ben replied, looking modest.

  Patricia Briggs

  Men, Sick, Sick Man

  Patricia Briggs (2010). “Silver Borne”, p.71, Penguin

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• She thinks how much more space a being occupies in life than it does in death; how much illusion of size is contained in gestures and movements, in breathing. Dead, we are revealed in our true dimensions, and they are surprisingly modest.

  Michael Cunningham

  Thinking, Breathing, Space

  Michael Cunningham (1998). “The Hours: A Novel”, p.165, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

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• Good God, you don’t give up.” “Nope.” I laughed, couldn’t help it, and his smile spread in response to the sound. “I’m sure there are plenty of girls who want to go out on a date with you.” “There are.” “Wow. Modest aren’t you?” “Why should I be?” he shot back. “And I want to go out on a date with you. Not them.

  J. Lynn

  Girl, Giving Up, Don't Give Up

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• Writing isn't generally a lucrative source of income; only a few, exceptional writers reach the income levels associated with the best-sellers. Rather, most of us write because we can make a modest living, or even supplement our day jobs, doing something about which we feel passionately. Even at the worst of times, when nothing goes right, when the prose is clumsy and the ideas feel stale, at least we're doing something that we genuinely love. There's no other reason to work this hard, except that love.

  Melissa Scott

  Jobs, Writing, Ideas

  Melissa Scott (1997). “Conceiving the Heavens: Creating the Science Fiction Novel”, Heinemann Drama

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• A modest dose of self-love is entirely healthy - who would want to live in a world where everyone hated themselves? But taken too far it soon becomes poisonous.

  Geoff Mulgan

  Taken, Love Is, Self

  "Because you're worth it" by Geoff Mulgan, www.theguardian.com. June 12, 2006.

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