Modesty Proverbs

Sayings about Modesty

When wine comes in, modesty leaves. ~ Italian Proverb

Modesty is the beauty of women. ~ Scottish Proverb

Don't look for more honor than your learning merits. ~Jewish Proverb

Sweep before your own door first before you sweep before the doorsteps of your neighbors. ~ Norwegian Proverb

Death has no modesty. ~ Zulu Proverb

Rare is agreement between beauty and modesty. ~ Latin Proverb

Too humble is half proud. ~ Yiddish Proverb

If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings. ~Welsh Proverb

Too much humility is pride. ~ German Proverb

An overly modest man goes hungry. ~ Ethiopian Proverb

Do not make yourself so big, you are not so small. ~ Jewish Proverb

Lower your head modestly while passing, and you will harvest bananas. ~ Congolese Proverb

If you humble yourself too much, you will get trampled on. ~ Serbian Proverb

If you are too modest, then you will go hungry. ~ African Proverb

Quotations about Modesty

Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise. ~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Modesty is the conscience of the body. ~ Honore de Balzac

What is modesty but inverted pride? ~ Chinua Achebe

I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes. ~ Yves Saint Laurent

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good. ~ Confucius

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. ~ Joseph Addison

True it is that covetousness is rich, modesty starves. ~ John Milton

What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth? ~ Horace

When one remains modest, not after praise but after blame, then is he really so. ~ Jean Paul Friedrich Richter

Modesty is the richest ornament of a woman … the want of it is her greatest deformity. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

To test a modest man’s modesty do not investigate if he ignores applause, find out if he abides criticism. ~ Franz Grillparzer

Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out. ~ Jean de la Bruyere

Modesty is bred of self-reverence. Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds. ~ Amos Bronson Alcott

Modesty is a diamond setting to female beauty. ~ Frances Anne

Modesty is a bright dish-cover, which makes us fancy there is something very nice underneath it. ~ Douglas William Jerrold

Modesty is a quality in a lover more praised by the women than liked. ~ Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Modesty is the chastity of merit, the virginity of noble souls. ~ Madame de Girardin

Modesty is policy, no less than virtue. ~ William Gilmore Simms

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself. ~ Jean De La Bruyere

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise. ~ Lord Chesterfield

Loquacity storms the ear, but modesty takes the heart. ~ Robert South

Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others. ~ William Hazlitt

To forgive and to be forgiven are the two points of holy magnificence and holy modesty; round these two centres the whole doctrine of largesse revolves. ~ Charles Williams

Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person. ~ Horace

With sincere modesty, if there is such a thing, I have never thought of legacy at all. I am always grateful if people like what I have done. A legacy is something no one can forsee. ~ Tom Glazer

Good taste is the modesty of the mind; that is why it cannot be either imitated or acquired. ~ Delphine de Girardin

Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it. ~ Oliver Herford

If modesty and candor are necessary to an author in his judgment of his own works, no less are they in his reader. ~ Sarah Fielding

Ornaments were invented by modesty. ~ Joseph Joubert

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. ~ Sir Richard Steele

No age, sex, or condition is above or below the absolute necessity of modesty; but without it one is vastly beneath the rank of man. ~ Bernard Barton

He takes the greatest ornament from friendship, who takes modesty from it. ~ Cicero

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Modesty, that perennial flower planted instinctively in the human breast, blooms therein only as continence guards and virtue keeps. ~ William Hazlitt

Darkness spoils modesty: no man blushes in the dark. ~ Amos Bronson Alcott

Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts when it is ill-treated. ~ Sir Richard Steele

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

Some are blessed with musical ability, others with good looks. Myself, I was blessed with modesty. ~ Roger Moore

We must watch over our modesty in the presence of those who cannot understand its grounds. ~ Jean Rostand

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue. ~ Joseph Addison

At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings. ~ Hector Berlioz

Modesty once extinguished knows not how to return. ~ Seneca

Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it. ~Oliver Herford

The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity. ~ Max Beerbohm

Modesty is silent when it would be improper to speak; the humble, without being called upon, never recollects to say anything of himself. ~ Johann Kaspar Lavater

He is a modest little man who has a good deal to be modest about. ~ Winston Churchill

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable. ~ Joseph Addison

The greatest ornament of an illustrious life is modesty and humility, which go a great way in the character even of the most exalted princes. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered. ~ Harriet Martineau

The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it. ~ Joseph Addison

The modest man has everything to gain, and the arrogant man everything to lose; for modesty has always to deal with generosity, and arrogance with envy. ~ Antoine de Rivarol

A modest man never talks of himself. ~ Jean de la Bruyere

Modesty is the color of virtue. ~ Diogenes of Sinope

Modesty should be typical of the success of a champion. ~ Major Taylor

Modesty is that feeling by which honorable shame acquires a valuable and lasting authority. ~ Cicero

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Modesty and unselfishness – these are the virtues which men praise – and pass by. ~ Andre Maurois

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Modesty used to be considered a natural female attribute. No more. ~ Linda Chavez

Modesty forbids what the law does not. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca

No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune. ~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Remember that with her clothes a woman puts off her modesty. ~ Herodotus

Modesty is of the color of virtue. ~ Laertius Diogenes

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

False modesty is the most decent of all deceptions. ~ Chamfort

Love knows nothing of modesty. ~ Honore de Balzac

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

So rare is the union of beauty with modesty. ~ Juvenal

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent. ~ William Shenstone

Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the imperfections of our nature; which one would think, might dispose us to modesty. ~ Jeremy Collier

I think that few people are aware how early it is right to respect the modesty of an infant. ~ Harriet Martineau

‘T is modesty that makes them seem divine. ~ William Shakespeare

The modesty’s a candle to thy merit. ~ Henry Fielding

Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable. ~ Richard Steele

Modesty: The art of encouraging people to find out for themselves how wonderful you are. ~Author Unknown

Modesty is a kind of shame or bashfulness proceeding from the sense a man has of his own defects compared with the perfections of him whom be comes before. ~ Bishop Robert South

Modesty is the citadel of beauty and virtue. ~ Demades