Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.

The C. S. Lewis Foundation and William O’Flaherty identify this as a misattribution, not a sentence in Mere Christianity. O’Flaherty locates it in Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life (2002), Day 19. Barry Popik traces an imperative form to Ken Blanchard in the Democrat and Chronicle on 13 March 1990 and a near-identical humility sentence to Lee Ezell’s Will the Real Me Please Stand Up! (1995), p. 25. Those print sources were not inspected here and remain secondary evidence; no unique coiner is established. Directly inspected evidence includes a Los Angeles Times article of 11 October 2015 printing the false Lewis credit, and Warren’s Daily Hope article of 28 September 2024 using the saying in his own teaching. The first Lewis credit remains unknown. The atlas holds no full Lewis texts, so no fresh exhaustive corpus search is claimed.

1. 13 March 1990Before it · credited to Ken BlanchardA newspaper report quotes Ken Blanchard using the think-less/think-of-yourself-less contrast without the opening definition of humility.Don’t think less of yourself, just think of yourself less.David Lindley, “Get ahead with ethics, author says,” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), 13 March 1990, p. 8D, column 5. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 1995Earliest found · credited to Lee Ezell (book author)Earliest near-identical humility definition located here appears in Lee Ezell’s book; this is evidence of publication, not proof of coinage.Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less!Lee Ezell, Will the Real Me Please Stand Up! (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), p. 25. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 2002Spread · credited to Rick WarrenWarren prints the familiar definition in Day 19 of The Purpose Driven Life; this does not establish him as the first author.Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (2002), Day 19, “Cultivating Community”. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 11 October 2015Credited to C. S. LewisJoyce E. A. Russell opens a Los Angeles Times workplace column with the sentence credited to C. S. Lewis.Humility is not thinking less of yourself; It’s thinking of yourself less.Joyce E. A. Russell, “Career Coach: Practicing humility is important at work,” Los Angeles Times, 11 October 2015. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source
5. 28 September 2024Spread · credited to Rick WarrenWarren uses the saying again in his bylined Daily Hope article, published by Oneplace.Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less.Rick Warren, “Four Promises for the Humble,” Daily Hope, 28 September 2024, Oneplace. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

The aphorism is often placed beside Lewis’s discussion of pride and humility in Mere Christianity, but Lewis researchers distinguish it from his actual sentences. Rick Warren uses it in teaching about humility and community. The antithesis also circulated before his 2002 book, including a near-identical sentence in Lee Ezell’s 1995 book and a related saying credited to Ken Blanchard in a 1990 newspaper report.

Humility is not low self-esteem: it is giving less attention to oneself and more to others.

A compatible idea is not an exact Lewis quotation. Conversely, finding the sentence in Warren’s book does not establish that Warren coined it: the documented earlier forms matter.

Morality, Wisdom, Humility

• A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so. (not found) Mahatma Gandhi
• If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. Epictetus
• Nathanaël—let the importance be in your gaze, not in the thing you look at. André Gide
• Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it. (paraphrase) Epictetus
• You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. (misattributed)

• cslewis.org/aboutus/faq/quotes-misattributed
• essentialcslewis.com/2015/10/03/humility-is-not
• barrypopik.com/blog/humility_is_not_thinking_less

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” Attributed to C. S. Lewis. No. Not a Lewis quotation. Rick Warren uses it, but closely related printed forms predate his 2002 book; the original coiner is not established. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/humility-is-not-thinking-less-of-yourself/ (checked 30 October 2026).

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