Quotes about humility
4 genuine quotes about humility, by Epictetus and Dostoevsky, most of them from Enchiridion (Handbook) and Crime and Punishment. Among the speakers: Sonia Marmeladova. Some are a character speaking, not the author: each entry says who speaks, and to whom. One more quote on humility circulates under these names but is not their words as shared; it is listed at the end.
- Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled, and then bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, ‘I am a murderer!’
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866), Part 5, chapter 4, said by Sonia Marmeladova.
- It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus, Discourses (108), Book 2, chapter 17, section 1 (opening of the chapter); George Long translation, Book II, XVII, “How We Must Adapt Preconceptions to Particular Cases”.
- If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Epictetus, Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 13; George Long translation, chapter XIII.
- If a man has reported to you, that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defence (answer) to what has been told you; but reply, The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only.
Epictetus, Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 33.9; George Long translation, chapter XXXIII, paragraph beginning “If a man has reported to you”.
Shared under these names, but not theirs as shared
- Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
Misattributed. Credited to C. S. Lewis. Not a Lewis quotation. Rick Warren uses it, but closely related printed forms predate his 2002 book; the original coiner is not established.