A Quote by Chinua Achebe

What is modesty but inverted pride?

Chinua Achebe

Quote Topics

Inverted Modesty Pride

Quote Author

Chinua Achebe
Nigerian - Novelist
November 16, 1930 - March 21, 2013

It was modesty that invented the word "philosopher" in Greece and left the magnificent overweening presumption in calling oneselfwise to the actors of the spirit--the modesty of such monsters of pride and sovereignty as Pythagoras, as Plato.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered.

Harriet Martineau

Inverted snobbery is just as dangerous as snobbery itself, you know - that pride in having nothing.

Pete Doherty

A false modesty is the meanest species of pride.

Edward Gibbon

The pride of woman, natural to her, never sleeps until modesty is gone.

Joseph Addison

Modesty isn't always a virtue; it can be a hindrance; a careful measure of personal pride builds confidence and ensures success.

Wayne Gerard Trotman

I do plead with the mothers of Zion to undertake modesty in dress. We may like to follow the fashion, but let us follow it in modesty. The most precious thing that a girl has is her modesty and if she preserves this in dress, in speech, in action, it will arm, and protect her as nothing else will. But let her lose her modesty, and she becomes a victim of those who pursue her, as the hare is of the hound; and she will not be able to stand unless she preserves her modesty.

L. Tom Perry

The sordid meal of the Cynics contributed neither to their tranquillity nor to their modesty. Pride went with Diogenes into his tub; and there he had the presumption to command Alexander the haughtiest of all men.

Henry Home, Lord Kames

I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned affectation. It's like decal stuck up on a person.

Maya Angelou

Be a constant outrage to modesty There is nothing to fear: modesty is exercised only among the blind.

Jean Cocteau

True modesty and true pride are much the same thing: both consist in setting a just value on ourselves - neither more nor less.

William Hazlitt

To acknowledge our faults when we are blamed, is modesty; to discover them to one's friends in ingenuousness, is confidence; but to preach them to all the world, if one does not take care, is pride.

Confucius

If you wish to be loved, be modest; if you wish to be admired, be proud; if you wish both, combine external modesty with internal pride.

Will Durant

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

Maya Angelou

The whole question of pornography seems to me a question of secrecy. Without secrecy there would be no pornography. But secrecy and modesty are two utterly different things. Secrecy has always an element of fear in it, amounting very often to hate. Modesty is gentle and reserved. Today, modesty is thrown to the winds, even in the presence of the grey guardians. But secrecy is hugged, being a vice in itself. And the attitude of the grey ones is: Dear young ladies, you may abandon all modesty, so long as you hug your dirty little secret.