Bashfulness Quotes

• Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Maturity, Vivacious, Modesty

  Mary Wollstonecraft, Janet Todd (1999). “A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution”, p.200, Oxford Paperbacks

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• Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Funny, Motivational

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• Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, Age, Ornaments

  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”

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• Shyness is a curious thing, because, like quicksand, it can strike people at any time, and also, like quicksand, it usually makes its victims look down.

  Daniel Handler

  People, Musician, Novelists

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• Not that I am ashamed of my mind or body, my birth or breeding, my actions or fortunes, for my bashfulness is in my nature, not for any crime.

  Margaret Cavendish

  Mind, Body, Action

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• Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

  Joseph Addison

  Confidence, Awkward, Literature

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1822). “The Spectator: with notes and illustrations. In six volumes”, p.46

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• In the bottle discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Confidence, Comfort, Bottles

  Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt (1854). “Johnson's Lives of the British Poets”, p.66

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• He, full of bashfulness and truth, loved much, hoped little, and desired naught.

  Torquato Tasso

  Littles, Truth Love

  Torquato Tasso, “Jerusalem Delivered - Book 02 - Part 02”

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• Nor do we accept, as genuine the person not characterized by this blushing bashfulness, this youthfulness of heart, this sensibility to the sentiment of suavity and self-respect. Modesty is bred of self-reverence. Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds. None are truly great without this ornament.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Heart, Self, Mind

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1868). “Tablets”, p.72

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• Anyone who stops learning is old — whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young but becomes constantly more valuable — regardless of physical capacity.

  Henry Ford

  Inspirational, Encouraging, Education

  "Moving Forward".

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• Women who are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest; and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a total ignorance of vice.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Ignorance, Vices, Principles

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.309

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• The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

  Aristotle

  Art, Philosophy, Philosophical

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• Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

  Jack Benny

  Funny, Happy Birthday, Elderly

  New York Times, 1974.

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• Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorrow, May, Sometimes

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.285

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• All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood.

  George S. Patton

  Military, Fighting, Men

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• There are two distinct sorts of what we call bashfulness; this, the awkwardness of a booby, which a few steps into the world will convert into the pertness of a coxcomb; that, a consciousness, which the most delicate feelings produce, and the most extensive knowledge cannot always remove.

  Henry Mackenzie

  Two, Feelings, World

  Henry Mackenzie (1836). “The Miscellaneous Works of Henry Mackenzie”, p.22

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• No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with his merit, panting with expectation, and hushed with attention, easily terrifies himself with the dread of disappointing them, and strains his imagination in pursuit of something that may vindicate the veracity of fame, and show that his reputation was not gained by chance.

  Samuel Johnson

  Imagination, Expectations, Arrogance

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.275

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• So sweet the blush of bashfulness, E'en pity scarce can wish it less!

  Lord Byron

  Sweet, Wish, Pity

  George Gordon Byron, “The Bride Of Abydos”

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• Bashfulness is more frequently connected with good sense than we find assurance; and impudence, on the other hand, is often the mere effect of downright stupidity.

  William Shenstone

  Hands, Stupidity, Assurance

  William Shenstone (1804). “Essays on Men and Manners”, p.66

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• Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. These people are Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying the books of law, and memorizing the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though they are assiduous in attending prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and, even if one desired to do so, her family would not allow her to go. The women have their 'friends' and 'companions' amongst the men outside their own families.

  Ibn Battuta

  Prayer, Husband, Book

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• Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders.

  Joseph Addison

  Acceptance, Awkward, Merit

  Joseph Addison (1856). “The works of ... Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd”, p.118

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• Perhaps a maiden's bashfulness is more A matron's lesson than our lips aver.

  Alfred Austin

  Lessons, Lips, Maidens

  Alfred Austin (1873). “Madonna's child [a poem].”, p.7

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• When I was small, my most serious handicap was a painful bashfulness in the presence of strangers.

  George McGovern

  Serious, Painful, Stranger

  George Stanley McGovern (1977). “Grassroots: the autobiography of George McGovern”, Random House (NY)

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• As to the human race. There are many pretty and winning things about the human race. It is perhaps the poorest of all the inventions of all the gods but it has never suspected it once. There is nothing prettier than its naive and complacent appreciation of itself. It comes out frankly and proclaims without bashfulness or any sign of a blush that it is the noblest work of God. It has had a billion opportunities to know better, but all signs fail with this ass. I could say harsh things about it but I cannot bring myself to do it-it is like hitting a child.

  Mark Twain

  Appreciation, Children, Winning

  Mark Twain, Charles Neider (1987). “The outrageous Mark Twain: some lesser-known but extraordinary works : with "Reflections on religion" now in book form for the first time”, Doubleday Books

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• Education is the best provision for old age.

  Aristotle

  Graduation, Education, Teaching

  Aristotle (2015). “The Aristotle Collection [50 Books]”, Catholic Way Publishing

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