“Modesty is an old-fashioned virtue, which, given your charms, you must certainly do without.”
First Dialogue, Delmonce
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
“Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.”
Ladies' Home Journal, Volume 72 (1955), p. 156.
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Oliver Herford 14
American writer 1863–1935Related quotes
“He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.”
Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Autumn (1730), l. 229.
Noah Webster
(1758–1843) lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, writer, editor and author
“Yet no stiff and frowning face was hers, no undue austerity in her manners, but gay and simple loyalty, charm blended with modesty.”
Nec frons triste rigens nimiusque in moribus horror
sed simplex hilarisque fides et mixta pudori
gratia.
i, line 64
Silvae, Book V
Leggiadre donne, infra molte bianche colombe aggiugne più di bellezza uno nero corvo, che non farebbe un candido cigno.
Ninth Day, Tenth Story
The Decameron (c. 1350)
“A charm
For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom
No sound is dissonant which tells of life.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher
This Lime-tree Bower my Prison
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Leo Strauss
(1899–1973) Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservativism
Source: What is Political Philosophy (1959), p. 40
Context: Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and everything akin to mathematics, and the charm of humble awe, which is engendered by meditation on the human soul and its experiences. Philosophy is characterized by the gentle, if firm, refusal to succumb to either charm. It is the highest form of the mating of courage and moderation. In spite of its highness or nobility, it could appear as Sisyphean or ugly, when one contrasts its achievement with its goal. Yet it is necessarily accompanied, sustained and elevated by eros. It is graced by nature's grace.
