“Be less than what you are so that you can become more.”
Source: The Spook's Sacrifice
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Joseph Delaney 15
British writer 1945Related quotes
“I am less than what you tell about me but more than what you think about me”
Nahj al-Balagha
Context: A man sarcastically started praising Imam Ali, though he had no faith in him and Imam Ali hearing these praises from him said "I am less than what you tell about me but more than what you think about me."

The Mike Wallace Interview (1958)
Context: The more complex the world situation becomes, the more scientific and rational analysis you have to have, the less you can do with simple good will and sentiment. Nonetheless, the human situation is so, and this is why I think that the Christian faith is right as against simple forms of secularism. That it believes that there is in man a radical freedom, and this freedom is creative but it is also destructive — and there's nothing that prevents this from being both creative and destructive. That's why history is not an answer to our problem, because history complicates, enlarges every problem of human existence.
Then and Now http://www.unfetteredmind.org/jewel-ornament-buddhahood#sect12. Unfettered Mind http://www.unfetteredmind.org. (2008-07-08) (Topic: Awareness)

https://www.complex.com/music/2020/01/grammys-2020-on-the-ground-report?

“Have more than you show,
Speak less than you know.”

“The more you look into and understand yourself, the less judgmental you become towards others.”

2000s
Context: No matter who you are, engaging in the quest to discover where and how things began tends to induce emotional fervor—as if knowing the beginning bestows upon you some form of fellowship with, or perhaps governance over, all that comes later. So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going.