Modest Quotes - Page 8

• I would put forward a modest proposition that we were very much better governed by Henry VIII than we are by King Gordon.

  David Starkey

  Kings, Henry V, Propositions

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• The annoying thing about being modest is that you can't brag about it.

  Gene Brown

  Annoying, Annoying Things, Brag

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• This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Retirement, Home

  "Obama evokes Roosevelt rhetoric". "The World Today with Eleanor Hall", www.abc.net.au. December 7, 2011.

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• I'm usually the first guy to propose a change because I'm continuing my process. We're in a context, in this business, a context in which most screenplays work on a very modest level of achievement, in that a lot of them aren't really written by what you would call writers.

  William Monahan

  Achievement, Guy, Levels

  Source: collider.com

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• We do not know anything - this is the first. Therefore, we should be very modest - this is the second. Not to claim that we do know when we do not - this is the third. That's the kind of attitude I'd like to popularize. There is little hope for success.

  Karl Popper

  Attitude, Littles, Firsts

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• I'm living in a very modest place. I have a room over-looking beautiful Claridge's Hotel. I thought it was better than paying Claridge's prices and overlooking the dump I'm living in.

  Jack Benny

  Beautiful, Rooms, Dump

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• I make the modest proposal that psychiatric care should be as easy to get as bullets at Wal-Mart.

  Andy Borowitz

  Care, Bullets, Proposal

  FaceBook post by Andy Borowitz from Jan 11, 2011

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• The great majority of people in England and America are modest, decent and pure-minded and the amount of virgins in the world today is stupendous.

  Barbara Cartland

  England And America, People, Majority

  Interview in Wendy Leigh's Speaking Frankly, 1978.

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• Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility.

  Maya Angelou

  Running, Humility, Thinking

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• Globally, emissions may have to be reduced, the scientists are telling us, by as much as 60% or 70%, with developed countries likely to have to make even bigger cuts if we're going to allow the developing world to have their share of growing industrial prosperity...The Kyoto Protocol is only the first rather modest step. Much, much deeper emission reductions will be needed in future. The political implications are mind-blowing.

  Michael Meacher

  Country, Cutting, Kyoto Protocol

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• The theory of evolution by natural selection is an ecological theory-founded on ecological observation by perhaps the greatest of all ecologists. It has been adopted by and brought up by the science of genetics, and ecologists, being modest people, are apt to forget their distinguished parenthood.

  John L. Harper

  Science, Theory Of Evolution, People

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• Yeah, well, we were looking for something sort of anonymous. It suggests what it is, but I like that it's modest. I feel like that's an underrated virtue. It's modest and it's kind of anonymous, which I liked, because it reminds me of my own ideas about why music should be played, which is not to be a star. That was never my intention.

  Zooey Deschanel

  Stars, Ideas, Kind

  "Zooey Deschanel thrilled to be in She & Him". Interview with Marc Hirsh, www.today.com. March 18, 2008.

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• We should be more modest in our belief that we can impose democracy on a country through military force.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Military, Historical

  Barack Obama (2009). “Barack Obama: Speeches on the Road to the White House”

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• A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Humble, Men, Vain

  Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.275

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• May I mention earrings and rings placed in other parts of the body. These are not manly. They are not attractive. You young men look better without them, and I believe you will feel better without them. As for the young women, you do not need to drape rings up and down your ears. One modest pair of earrings is sufficient.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Believe, Feel Better, Men

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• The English instinctively admire any man who has no talent and is modest about it.

  James Agate

  Travel, Home, Men

  James Agate (1951). “The Later Ego: Consisting of Ego 8 and Ego 9”

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• Is it better to be extremely ambitious, or rather modest? Probably the latter is safer; but I hate safety, and would rather fail gloriously than dingily succeed.

  Vita Sackville-West

  Hate, Safety, Ambitious

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• By and large, the Healing Dream is not the defender of our waking goals-material achievement, perfect romance, a modest niche in history-but an advocate-general for the soul, whose aims may be diametrically different... The nourishment of the dreamworld is a reciprocal affair: as we provide for it, it provides for us.

  Marc Ian Barasch

  Dream, Healing, Perfect

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• Hope puts up with modest gains, realizing that the longest journey starts with one step.

  James Keller

  Journey, Hopeful, Gains

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• Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offense that one appreciates them.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Humility, Pride, Men

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• As nearly as possible in the spirit of Matthew Salinger, age one, urging a luncheon companion to accept a cool lima bean, I urge my editor, mentor and (heaven help him) closest friend, William Shawn, genius domus of The New Yorker, lover of the long shot, protector of the unprolific, defender of the hopelessly flamboyant, most unreasonably modest of born great artist-editors to accept this pretty skimpy-looking book.

  J. D. Salinger

  Love, Book, Artist

  "The Mistakes in This Essay Are My Own" by John Maxwell Hamilton, www.nytimes.com. April 15, 1990.

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• I was raised to be modest to the point of fanaticism. In my family, we don't talk about ourselves to each other. Vanity is considered the worst possible sin. I've gotten better about having to describe things. If you're going to make a record and people are going to write about you, it's your responsibility to answer questions. It's validating - I'm just very clumsy.

  Neko Case

  Writing, Responsibility, People

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• I will continue to distribute blankets, sleeping bags, warm clothing and food on a regular basis, in the hope that my modest efforts will give some comfort to those people we are able help.

  Mohamed Al-Fayed

  Inspirational, Sleep, People

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• I want to remind you that success in life is based on hard slogging. There will be periods when discouragement is great and upsetting, and the antidote for this is calmness and fortitude and a modest yet firm belief in your competence. Be sure that your priorities are in order so that you can proceed in a logical manner, and be ever mindful that nothing will take the place of persistence.

  Walter Annenberg

  Inspirational, Persistence, Order

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• History is now strictly organized, powerfully disciplined, but it possesses only a modest educational value and even less conscious social purpose.

  J. H. Plumb

  Educational, History, Purpose

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