Modesty
From Wikiquote
Modesty is often used as synonym of humility and an antonym of boastfulness; a modest person does not draw attention to their own real or supposed accomplishments and desirable attributes. Terms related to "modesty" in this sense include "shyness", and "simplicity". Related usages occur to describe modes of dress and deportment that are not considered ostentatious or alluring, or some object or attribute that is, in fact, not very desirable; a "modest dwelling" would describe a hut rather than a palace.
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[edit] Quotes
- A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades in paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colours more beautiful, though not so glaring as they would be without it.
- Joseph Addison, The Spectator No. 231 (24 November 1711).
- In short, if you banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.
- Joseph Addison, The Spectator No. 231 (24 November 1711).
- True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.
- Joseph Addison, The Spectator No. 458 (15 August 1712).
- The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life (1860).
- Thy modesty's a candle to thy merit.
- Henry Fielding, Tom Thumb the Great (1730), Act I, scene 3, line 8.
- Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.- Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770), line 329.
- On the contrary, modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.
- Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1771), act I scene I.
- Longevity and short life, suffering and happiness — all aspects of human life depend on modesty in food and drink.
- Namboku Mizuno, Food Governs Your Destiny, introduction, p. 20.
- I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.
- Jean-Paul Sartre, in The Devil and the Good Lord (1951), Act 4, sc. 5
- Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there?- William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act II, scene 2, line 167.
- Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act IV, scene 2, line 27.
- 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, The Guardian No. 24 (8 April 1713).
- Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts; when it is ill-treated, it pines, it beseeches, it languishes.
- Richard Steele, The Tatler No. 217 (29 August 1710).
- He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.- James Thomson, The Seasons, Autumn (1730), line 229.
[edit] Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 520-21.
- Maximum ornamentum amicitiæ tollit, qui ex ea tollit verecundiam.
- He takes the greatest ornament from friendship, who takes modesty from it.
- Cicero, De Amicitia, XX.
- Modesty is that feeling by which honorable shame acquires a valuable and lasting authority.
- Cicero, Rhetorical Invention, Book II, Section LVI.
- Modesty antedates clothes and will be resumed when clothes are no more.
Modesty died when clothes were born.
Modesty died when false modesty was born.- Mark Twain, Memoranda. Paine's Biography of Mark Twain, Volume III, p. 1513.
- Immodest words admit of no defence;
For want of decency is want of sense.- Wentworth Dillon, Essay on Translated Verse, line 113.
- Like the violet, which alone
Prospers in some happy shade,
My Castara lives unknown
To no looser eye betrayed.- William Habington, Castara (1634). In Elton's ed, p. 166.
- Why, to hear Betsy Bobbet talk about wimmin's throwin' their modesty away, you would think if they ever went to the political pole, they would have to take their dignity and modesty and throw 'em against the pole, and go without any all the rest of their lives.
- Marietta Holley, My Opinions and Betsy Bobbet's.
- Cui pudor et justitiæ soror incorrupta fides nudaque veritas quando ullum inveniet parem?
- Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.
- Jean de La Bruyère, The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (1688), Chapter II, Section 17.
- Adolescentem verecundum esse decet.
- Modesty becomes a young man.
- Plautus, Asinaria, V. 1. 8.
- Wenn jemand bescheiden bleibt, nicht beim Lobe, sondern beim Tadel, dann ist er's.
- When one remains modest, not after praise but after blame, then is he really so.
- Jean Paul Richter, Hesperus, 12.
- Da locum melioribus.
- Give place to your betters.
- Terence, Phormio, III. 2. 37.
[edit] Unsourced
- You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew.
- God intended for women two preventatives against sin, modesty and remorse; in confession to a mortal priest the former is removed by his absolution, the latter is taken away.
- Modesty once extinguished knows not how to return.
- The man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a figleaf.
