Humility Quotes

“Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, but graciously to know I am no better.”

“Lord Bacon told Sir Edward Coke when he was boasting, The less you speak of your greatness, the more shall I think of it.”

“So holy and so perfect is my love, And I in such a poverty of grace, That I shall think it a most plenteous crop To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps.”

“GLOUCESTER: Yet so much is my poverty of spirit, So mighty and so many my defects, As I had rather hide me from my greatness, Being a bark to brook no mighty sea, Than in my greatness covet to be hid, And in the vapour of my glory smother'd. But God be thanked. . . .”

“Pray, do not mock me.I am a very foolish fond old man,Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;And, to deal plainly,I fear I am not in my perfect mind.”

“Pardon, gentles all, the flat unraised spirits that have dared on this unworthy scaffold to bring forth so great an object.”

“I have sounded the very base-string of humility.”

“For my own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men.”

“Know more than other. Work more than other. Expect less than other”

“It is the witness still of excellency to put a strange face on his own perfection.”

“Come my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.”

“Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks”

“Whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.”

“They are but beggars that can count their worth.”

“GLOUCESTER: I do not know that Englishman alive With whom my soul is any jot at odds, More than the infant that is born to-night: I thank my God for my humility.”

“For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, To stir men's blood: I only speak right on; I tell you that which you yourselves do know.”

“I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, My figured goblets for a dish of wood, My scepter for a palmer's walking staff My subjects for a pair of carved saints and my large kingdom for a little grave.”

“Give me a staff of honor for mine age,But not a sceptre to control the world.”

“Who knows himself a braggart, Let him fear this; for it will come to pass That every braggart will be found an ass.”

“There is not one wise man in twenty that will praise himself.”

“You have but mistook me all the while... I live by bread like you, taste grief, feel want, need friends. Conditioned thus how can you call me king?”

“No man has ever had a point of pride that was not injurious to him.”

“Astronomy taught us our insignificance in Nature.”

“The great will not condescend to take anything seriously.”

“Humility is the secret of the wise.”