“Modesty is oftner mistaken than any other Virtue.”

—  George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Modesty is oftner mistaken than any other Virtue." by George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax?
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax 65
English politician 1633–1695

Related quotes

William Hazlitt photo

“The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of ostentation. It seems as if we thought our weaknesses as good as other people's virtues.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

No. 43
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

John Kenneth Galbraith photo

“Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Interview with Lorie Conway (1997) from Interviews with John Kenneth Galbraith (2004) ed. James Ronald Stanfield and Jacqueline Bloom Stanfield. Conway saw these words on a framed needlepoint, entitled "Galbraith's First Law," at Galbraith's home

William Hazlitt photo

“Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

"On the Knowledge of Character"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

Joseph Addison photo

“Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 231 (24 November 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Elvis Costello photo

“Nonsense prevails, modesty fails
Grace and virtue turn into stupidity”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

All This Useless Beauty
Song lyrics, All This Useless Beauty (1996)
Context: Nonsense prevails, modesty fails
Grace and virtue turn into stupidity
While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise
And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts
They still think they're the gods of antiquity
If something you missed didn't even exist
It was just an ideal — is it such a surprise?

Jean Paul Sartre photo

“I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 4, sc. 5
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

Marquis de Sade photo

“Modesty is an old-fashioned virtue, which, given your charms, you must certainly do without.”

Marquis de Sade Philosophy in the Bedroom

First Dialogue, Delmonce
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)

Ambrose Bierce photo

“The virtues chose Modesty to be their queen.
"I did not know that I was a virtue," she said. "Why did you not choose Innocence?"
"Because of her ignorance," they replied. "She knows nothing but that she is a virtue."”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: Epigrams, p. 358

Northrop Frye photo

“We are now dealing with the imaginative, not the existential, with the "let this be," not with "this is," and no work of literature is better by virtue of what it says than any other work”

Northrop Frye book The Well-Tempered Critic

The Well-Tempered Critic, p. 140
"Quotes"
Context: The fundamental act of criticism is a disinterested response to a work of literature in which all one's beliefs, engagements, commitments, prejudices, stampedings of pity and terror, are ordered to be quiet. We are now dealing with the imaginative, not the existential, with the "let this be," not with "this is," and no work of literature is better by virtue of what it says than any other work.

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools, for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

Vol. 1, Ch. 3, Section 2: Pride
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

Related topics