Modesty Quotes - Page 11

• Chastity prays for me, piety sings,
  Innocence sweetens my last black breath,
  Modesty hides my thighs in her wings,
  And all the deadly virtues plague my death!

  Dylan Thomas

  Wings, Black, Lasts

  Dylan Thomas, Daniel Jones (2003). “The Poems of Dylan Thomas”, p.238, New Directions Publishing

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• Before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority have the modesty not to talk; when they have drunk wine, every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous; but he is not improved; he is only not sensible of his defects.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wine, Men, Drunk

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.64

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• It rarely adds anything to say, "In my opinion" - not even modesty. Naturally a sentence is only your opinion; and you are not the Pope.

  Paul Goodman

  Add, Opinion, Pope

  Paul Goodman (1966). “Five years”

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• The pride of woman, natural to her, never sleeps until modesty is gone.

  Joseph Addison

  Sleep, Pride, Gone

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• To forgive and to be forgiven are the two points of holy magnificence and holy modesty; round these two centres the whole doctrine of largesse revolves.

  Charles Williams

  Two, Forgiving, Doctrine

  Charles Williams (2016). “The Image of the City and Other Essays”, p.141, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Several country towns, within my observation, have at least a dozen taverns. Here the time, the money, the health and the modesty, of most that are young and of many old, are wasted. Here diseases, vicious habits, bastards and legislators are frequently spawned.

  John Adams

  Country, Taverns, Dozen

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• Excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation.

  Francis Bacon

  Art, Wells, Ostentation

  Francis Bacon (1856). “Bacon's Essays”, p.478

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• 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.

  Richard Steele

  Men, Envy, Doe

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Guardian: With a Biographical, Historical, and Critical Preface by the Rev. Rob. Lynam”, p.94

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• How shall we praise the magnificence of the dead,
  The great man humbled, the haughty brought to dust?

  Conrad Aiken

  Men, Dust, Magnificence

  Conrad Aiken (1961). “Selected Poems”, p.36, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts; when it is ill-treated, it pines, it beseeches, it languishes.

  Richard Steele

  Rage, Ill, Languish

  Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison (1774). “The Tatler; Or, Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq”, p.106

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• Be like a river in generosity and giving help. Be like a sun in tenderness and pity. Be like night when covering other's faults. Be like a dead when furious and angry. Be like earth in modesty and humbleness. Be like a sea in tolerance. Be as you are or as you look like.

  Rumi

  Night, Sea, Rivers

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• Virtue which shuns, the day.

  Joseph Addison

  Virtue

  Joseph Addison (1733). “Cato: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's Servants”, p.45

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• The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.

  Joseph Addison

  Half, World, Next

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• Pastime passing excellent, if it he husbanded with modesty.

  William Shakespeare

  Time Passing, Excellent, Pastime

  William Shakespeare (2016). “The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works”, p.413, Oxford University Press

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• The wearing of costly array is directly opposite to being adorned with good works. Nothing can be more evident than this; for the more you lay out on your own apparel, the less you have left to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to lodge the stranger, to relieve those that are sick and in prison.

  John Wesley

  Opposites, Sick, Naked

  John Wesley, John Emory (1835). “The Works of the Late Reverend John Wesley, A.M.: From the Latest London Edition with the Last Corrections of the Author, Comprehending Also Numerous Translations, Notes, and an Original Preface, Etc”, p.261

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• It is only the first obstacle which counts to conquer modesty.

  Bill Vaughan

  Firsts, Obstacles, Conquer

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• Modesty and taste are questions of latitude and education; the more people know,--the more their ideas are expanded by travel, experience, and observation,--the less easily they are shocked. The narrowness and bigotry of women are the result of their circumscribed sphere of thought and action.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Ideas, People, Taste

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (2016). “Elizabeth Cady Stanton: As Revealed in Her Letters & Diary (Abridged)”, p.114, BIG BYTE BOOKS

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• Justice is a moral virtue, merely because it has that tendency to the good of mankind, and indeed is nothing but an artificial invention to that purpose. The same may be said of allegiance, of the laws of nations, of modesty, and of good manners. All these are mere human contrivances for the interest of society.

  David Hume

  Law, Justice, Good Man

  David Hume (2015). “A Treatise of Human Nature”, p.984, David Hume

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• You find in some a sort of graceless modesty, that makes them ashamed to requite an obligation.

  Seneca the Younger

  Ashamed, Obligation

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• The darts of love are blunted by maiden modesty.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Love, Maidens, Darts

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• Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light or look the world in the face.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Light, Practice, Principles

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• Without modesty, woman is devoid of beauty and culture. Humility, purity of thought and manners, meekness, surrender to high ideals, sensitivity, sweetness of temper - the peculiar blend of all these qualities is modesty. It is the most invaluable of all jewels for women.

  Sathya Sai Baba

  Humility, Jewels, Quality

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• If a young lady has that discretion and modesty without which all knowledge is little worth, she will never make an ostentatious parade of it, because she will rather be intent on acquiring more than on displaying what she has.

  Hannah More

  Littles, Parades, Young

  Hannah More (1835). “The works of Hannah More”, p.344

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• Confidence, as opposed, to modesty and distinguished from decent assurance, proceeds from self-opinion, and is occasioned by ignorance and flattery.

  Jeremy Collier

  Confidence, Ignorance, Self

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• The woman and the soldier who do not defend the first pass will never defend the last.

  Henry Fielding

  Soldier, Lasts, Firsts

  Henry Fielding (1824). “The Works of Henry Fielding, with a Life of the Author: Plays”, p.282

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