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Vain men delight in telling what honours have been done them, what great company they have kept, and the like, by which they plainly confess that these honours were more than their due, and such as their friends would not believe if they had not been told: whereas a man truly proud thinks the greatest honours below his merit, and consequently scorns to boast.

— Jonathan Swift

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Humility

More quotes by Jonathan Swift

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.

I said the thing which was not. (For they have no word in their language to express lying or falsehood.)

Gulliver's Travels (1726)

He made it a part of his religion never to say grace to his meat.

A Tale of a Tub (1704)

A wise man is never less alone than when he is alone.

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Be wise;
Soar not too high, to fall; but stoop to rise.

Philip Massinger Duke of Milan (1623)

Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Jesus

At very best, a person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.

Harry Emerson Fosdick On Being a Real Person (1943)

Modesty is an unnatural attitude, and one which is only with difficulty taught to children.

Isaac Asimov The Early Asimov Book Two (1972)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jonathan Swift (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.