Quotes about pride

13 genuine quotes about pride, by Epictetus, Wilde and Dostoevsky, from works including Enchiridion (Handbook) and I’m No Angel. Among the speakers: Tira, Tyler Durden and Gaius Laelius. Most are a character speaking, not the author: each entry says who speaks, and to whom. 2 more quotes on pride circulate under these names but are not their words as shared; they are listed at the end.

  1. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

    Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband (1895), Act III, said by Lord Goring.

  2. 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.

  3. 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”.

  4. If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

    Epictetus, Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 13; George Long translation, chapter XIII.

  5. Peel me a grape.

    Mae West, I’m No Angel (1933), Tira’s instruction to Beulah after an offer to buy her off; approximately 00:48:25 in the copy indexed by Clip.Cafe, said by Tira.

  6. There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

    Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter 1, said by Lord Henry Wotton.

  7. The first step to eternal life is you have to die.

    Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (1996), Opening paragraph, said by Tyler Durden.

  8. The fact is that fewer people are endowed with virtue than wish to be thought to be so.

    Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Friendship (44 BC), Chapter XXVI, section 98 (Laelius de Amicitia 26.98), said by Gaius Laelius.

  9. Even in toothache there is enjoyment.

    Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1 (“Underground”), chapter 4, said by the Underground Man.

  10. 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”.

  11. I’ve been things and seen places.

    Mae West, I’m No Angel (1933), Tira’s early conversation with the visitor who introduces himself as Ernest Brown, following his boast about travel, said by Tira.

  12. You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

    Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise (1978), ‘Still I Rise’, first stanza, lines 3–4, said by a defiant Black lyric speaker addressing those who would humiliate her.

  13. I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

    Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act II, Gwendolen and Cecily comparing their engagements, said by Gwendolen Fairfax.

Check a quote about pride

Shared under these names, but not theirs as shared

  1. I have nothing to declare except my genius.

    Not found. Credited to Oscar Wilde. It is not in Wilde’s works, and who first wrote it is not known.

  2. We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.

    Misattributed. Credited to Chuck Palahniuk. The wording is misattributed to Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Its older formulation is traced to Robert Quillen in 1928; the exact modern sentence’s author has not been established.

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