Humility is a quality that can often feel incompatible with today’s society. The news is chock-full of billionaires, celebrities, tech giants, and an assortment of other oversized egos demanding our attention and praise. We seem to be expected to also aspire to those levels of hubris and vanity, but holding ourselves in a more modest regard can be beneficial in the long run.
That’s not to say we shouldn’t love or be confident in ourselves. Humility is often mistaken for being self-critical, but these are two different things. We can be gentle toward ourselves and proud of our accomplishments while still remaining open to the ideas that we aren’t perfect, that we don’t know everything, and that we always have room for improvement.
Another common misconception equates being humble with weakness. There’s a lot of strength to be found in humility, but it’s not the ostentatious sort of strength we may be accustomed to. Rather, it’s a quiet strength that underlies and bolsters our actions.
With that in mind, here are 17 quotes on the benefits of humility to carry with us in our everyday lives.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.Rick Warren
Be wise; soar not too high to fall; but stoop to rise.Philip Massinger
We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.Rabindranath Tagore
Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues, hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.Augustine of Hippo
With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings.Ezra Taft Benson
Pride makes us artificial, and humility makes us real.Thomas Merton
When the dreams you’re dreamin’ come to you / When the work you put in is realized / Let yourself feel the pride but / Always stay humble and kind.Tim McGraw
Life is a long lesson in humility.J.M. Barrie
We learned about gratitude and humility — that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean … and we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect.Michelle Obama
A great man is always willing to be little.Ralph Waldo Emerson
To be humble to superiors is duty; to equals, is courtesy; to inferiors, is nobleness.Thomas More
There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Humility, I have learned, must never be confused with meekness. Humility is being open to the ideas of others.Simone Sinek
It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment.Bernard of Clairvaux
Humility is attentive patience.Simone Weil
Every person that you meet knows something you don’t; learn from them.H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Humility is perfect quietness of heart … It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel no resentment when anything is done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me.Andrew Murray
Featured image credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/ACMA2017/ Getty Images Entertainment
