Modest Quotes - Page 15

• In the tropics the white feels weakened, or downright weak, whence comes the heightened tendency to outbursts of aggression. People who are polite, modest or even humble in Europe fall easily into a rage here, get into fights, destroy other people. . .

  Ryszard Kapuscinski

  Fall, Humble, Fighting

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• The men who were running the church in the late '60s and '70s panicked when they saw the chaos, which developed after the council. The relatively modest changes of those years thawed the ice in which Catholicism had been frozen since the French Revolution.

  Andrew Greeley

  Running, Men, Years

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• Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.

  Steven Pressfield

  Artist, Knows, Dictation

  Steven Pressfield (2002). “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles”, p.127, Black Irish Entertainment LLC

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• The blushing cheek speaks modest mind,The lips befitting words most kind,The eye does tempt to love's desire,And seems to, say 'tis "Cupid's fire.

  James Harrington

  Eye, Fire, Mind

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• The drop in pending home sales is an affirmation that we are experiencing a modest slowing in the housing sector.

  David Lereah

  Home, Affirmation, Pending

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• The heroic hours of life do not announce their presence by drum and trumpet, challenging us to be true to ourselves by appeals to the martial spirit that keeps the blood at heat. Some little, unassuming, unobtrusive choice presents itself before us slyly and craftily, glib and insinuating, in the modest garb of innocence. . . . Then it is that you will be summoned to show the courage of adventurous youth.

  Benjamin Cardozo

  Character, Blood, Choices

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• Love is a modest and immodest teacher who will bring you through the school of existence, which is the heart.

  Frederick Lenz

  Teacher, Yoga, Heart

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• Atlee is a very modest man. And with reason.

  Winston Churchill

  Humorous, Men, Reason

  Sir Winston Churchill (1965). “The Churchill Wit”

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• Every athletic career, no matter how modest or lofty, is a journey.

  Dan Millman

  Success, Sports, Journey

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• Some men by unalterable frame of their constitution are stout, others timorous, some confident, others modest and tractable.

  Jonathan Weiner

  Men, Constitution, Stout

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• No matter how vast your knowledge or how modest, it is your own mind that has to acquire it.

  John Galt

  Mind, Matter, Acquire

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• Nor will I then thy modest grace forget, Chaste Snow-drop, venturous harbinger of Spring, And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

  William Wordsworth

  Spring, Years, Snow

  William Wordsworth (1847). “The Poems of William Wordsworth”, p.206

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• To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased with her.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Men, Giving, Give And Take

  Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (2015). “Stoic Six Pack: Meditations of Marcus Aurelius The Golden Sayings Fragments and Discourses of Epictetus Letters from a Stoic and The Enchiridion”, p.60, Lulu.com

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• When a monarchy gradually transforms itself into a republic, the executive power there preserves titles, honors, respect, and even money long after it has lost the reality of power. The English, having cut off the head of one of their kings and chased another off the throne, still go on their knees to address the successors of those princes. On the other hand, when a republic falls under one man's yoke, the ruler's demeanor remains simple, unaffected, and modest, as if he had not already been raised above everybody.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Kings, Fall, Cutting

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

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• Conceit spoils the finest genius?and the great charm of all power is modesty.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Genius, Modesty, Little Women

  1868 Little Women, pt.1, ch.7.

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• I stood tip-toe upon a little hill, The air was cooling, and so very still, That the sweet buds which with a modest pride Pull droopingly, in slanting curve aside, Their scantly leaved, and finely tapering stems, Had not yet lost those starry diadems Caught from the early sobbing of the morn.

  John Keats

  Sweet, Pride, Curves

  John Keats, Helen Vendler (1990). “Poetry Manuscripts at Harvard”, p.32, Harvard University Press

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• Desert Storm II would be in a walk in the park... The case for 'regime change' boils down to the huge benefits and modest costs of liberating Iraq.

  Kenneth Adelman

  Iraq, Storm, Benefits

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• True intelligence very readily conceives of an intelligence superior to its own; and this is why truly intelligent men are modest.

  Andre Gide

  Men, Intelligent, True Intelligence

  Andre Gide (2017). “Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality”, p.280, Routledge

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• Women who were housewives, who were pretty miserable ... felt inspired by her book and their life changed. They didn't become megastars, but they became a librarian or something. I've heard women say again and again when the subject of Germaine comes up: 'Well, her book changed my life for the better.' And they'll be modest women living pretty ordinary lives, but better lives.

  Germaine Greer

  Life Changing, Book, Ordinary

  "Germaine Greer" by Laura Miller, www.salon.com. June 22, 1999.

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• Fortunately the Italian people has not yet accustomed itself to eat many times a day, and possessing a modest level of living, it feels deficiency and suffering less.

  Benito Mussolini

  Italian, People, Suffering

  "Garlic and Oil: Food and Politics in Italy". Book by Carol F. Helstosky, 2006.

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• I was always a singer, it was nothing anyone planned on me doing for real, because it's an unusual thing. I was just sort of saying, even having modest ambitions to have a small career at singing, it's still really difficult to do that. Everyone wants to sing or act or whatever.

  Lana Del Rey

  Real, Ambition, Unusual Things

  "Ice Breaker: Lana Del Rey". Interview with Sean Fennessey, www.gq.com. October 6, 2011.

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• The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:While the Lily white shall in love delight,Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

  William Blake

  Humble, Sheep, White

  William Blake (2013). “The Poetry of William Blake”, p.84, eBookIt.com

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• If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it.

  Epictetus

  Money, Faithful, Way

  Epictetus (2012). “Enchiridion”, p.15, Courier Corporation

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• There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.

  Evelyn Beatrice Hall

  Nature, Retirement, Kindness

  "The Friends of Voltaire". Book by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, 1906.

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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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