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For what is modesty but hypocritical humility, by means of which, in a world swelling with vile envy, a man seeks to beg pardon for his excellences and merits from those who have none? For whoever attributes no merit to himself because he really has none is not modest, but merely honest.

— Arthur Schopenhauer The World as Will and Representation (1819)

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More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.

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Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

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Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars.

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Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

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Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

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