Quotes about pride
A collection of quotes on the topic of pride, doing, people, other.
Quotes about pride
“Two things cause people to be destroyed: fear of poverty and seeking superiority through pride.”
Ali (601–661) cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol. 72, p. 39
“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice
Source: Pride and Prejudice
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) Medieval saint, prophetise, mystic and Doctor of Church
Letter to the Monk Guibert, 1176
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor
My Inventions (1919)
Context: While I have not lost faith in its potentialities, my views have changed since. War can not be avoided until the physical cause for its recurrence is removed and this, in the last analysis, is the vast extent of the planet on which we live. Only though annihilation of distance in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations. What we now want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth and the elimination of that fanatic devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride, which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife. No league or parliamentary act of any kind will ever prevent such a calamity. These are only new devices for putting the weak at the mercy of the strong.
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
ibid
Other
“I take pride as the king of illiterature.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Very Ape.
Song lyrics, In Utero (1993)
“Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer
“I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;”
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet
Source: 100 Love Sonnets
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) Italian poet and editor, founder of the Futurist movement
1910's, Futurist Speech to the English' (1910)
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian
Letter to Deborah Hatheway (1741), in Letters and Personal Writings (1998), edited by George S. Claghorn, Vol. 16.
Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II
Source: A Soldier's Story (1951), p. x.
“Pride, Envy, and Avarice are
the three sparks that have set these hearts on fire.”
Dante Alighieri book Inferno
Canto VI, lines 74–75 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager
Chelsea FC, Doctorate Honoris Causa degree award (23 March 2009)
Billie Joe Armstrong (1972) American singer and guitarist
Reported in Q Magazine interview - Jan 2015
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) German jurist, writer and pioneer of LGBT human rights
Quoted in: Keith Stern (2013), Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals. p. 460
Clair Cameron Patterson (1922–1995) American chemist and geochemist
In a Interview With Shirley K. Cohen http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/32/1/OH_Patterson.pdf
Andrea Dworkin book Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation
Source: Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation (2000), p. 246.
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Remark made at Kremlin New Year's Eve reception, December 31, 1956. Quoted in Khrushchev by Edward Crankshaw. ISBN 9781448205059
Isabel II do Reino Unido (1926–2022) queen of the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and head of the Commonwealth of Nations
Address to the UK on the 75th anniversary of VE Day, which occurred during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, 08/05/2020 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-queen-ve-day-speech-read-full-a9506226.html.
Robert Downey Jr. (1965) American actor
Source: "Playing Iron Man was hard and I dug deep: Robert Downey Jr" https://www.hindustantimes.com/hollywood/playing-iron-man-was-hard-and-i-dug-deep-robert-downey-jr/story-OOv6pvyDb8ojxc1r78g89K.html (13 December 2020)
“People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.”
Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird
Pt. 1, ch. 10
Miss Maudie
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author
Source: 1980s–1990s, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)
“… for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
“He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Pride is all very well, but a sausage is a sausage.”
Terry Pratchett book Men at Arms
Source: Men at Arms
Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist
Source: Bleach, Volume 01
“Memory says, 'I did that.' Pride replies, 'I could not have done that.' Eventually, memory yields.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Source: The Gay Science
Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author
Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
“Human pride is not worthwhile; there is always something lying in wait to take the wind out of it.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam
Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 616
Sunni Hadith
Variant: Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Part of the excellence of a person's Islam is his leaving alone what does not concern him."
“Pride and Vanity have built more Hospitals than all the Virtues together.”
Bernard Mandeville book The Fable of the Bees
"An Essay on Charity, and Charity-Schools", p. 294
The Fable of the Bees (1714)
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer
Originates in a 2007 blog post by Iain S. Thomas entitled The Fur http://www.iwrotethisforyou.me/2007/08/fur.html <br class="br">Misattributed
“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”
Humilitas homines sanctis angelis similes facit, et superbia ex angelis demones facit.
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
As quoted in Manipulus Florum (c. 1306), edited by Thomas Hibernicus, Superbia i cum uariis; also in Best Thoughts Of Best Thinkers: Amplified, Classified, Exemplified and Arranged as a Key to unlock the Literature of All Ages (1904) edited by Hialmer Day Gould and Edward Louis Hessenmueller
Disputed
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1850s, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor
As quoted in What Is the Sangha?: The Nature of Spritual Community (2001) by Sangharakshita, p. 136.
“Hear oh hear, if my prayer be worthy and such as you yourself might whisper to my frenzy. Those I begot (no matter in what bed) did not try to guide me, bereft of sight and sceptre, or sway my grieving with words. Nay behold (ah agony!), in their pride, kings this while by my calamity, they even mock my darkness, impatient of their father's groans. Even to them am I unclean? And does the sire of the gods see it and do naught? Do you at least, my rightful champion, come hither and range all my progeny for punishment. Put on your head this gore-soaked diadem that I tore off with my bloody nails. Spurred by a father's prayers, go against the brothers, go between them, let steel make partnership of blood fly asunder. Queen of Tartarus' pit, grant the wickedness I would fain see.”
Exaudi, si digna precor quaeque ipsa furenti
subiceres. orbum visu regnisque carentem
non regere aut dictis maerentem flectere adorti,
quos genui quocumque toro; quin ecce superbi
—pro dolor!—et nostro jamdudum funere reges
insultant tenebris gemitusque odere paternos.
hisne etiam funestus ego? et videt ista deorum
ignavus genitor? tu saltem debita vindex
huc ades et totos in poenam ordire nepotes.
indue quod madidum tabo diadema cruentis
unguibus abripui, votisque instincta paternis
i media in fratres, generis consortia ferro
dissiliant. da, Tartarei regina barathri,
quod cupiam vidisse nefas.
Source: Thebaid, Book I, Line 73
“Our caravan leader is the pride of the world, Mustafa [Muhammad]”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
As quoted in And Muhammad is his Messenger : The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (1985) by Annemarie Schimmel, p. 215
Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954–1990) American guitarist, songwriter and recording artist
"Pride and Joy"
Song lyrics
“A dark unfathom'd tide
Of interminable pride —
A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem.”
Edgar Allan Poe book Tamerlane and Other Poems
" Imitation http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/poe/17481", Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827).
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
1 Cor. 12:27
Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p. 415
Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions
A. Outler, trans. (Dover: 2002), Book 5, Chapter 10, p. 77
Confessions (c. 397)
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
after Monet's death
Source: Denis Rouart (1972) Claude Monet, p. 22 : About the first steps in his career
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works
One of two draft letters (25 July, 1938) written for Stanley Unwin to select as a response to his German publishers inquiry about his ancestry. The other letter refused to answer altogether on his ancestry; since the quoted letter persists, it seems that the other letter was sent.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals (8 March 1983)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
John Locke book Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Sec. 115
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1887–1976) British Army officer, Commander of Allied forces at the Battle of El Alamein
Memoirs (London: Collins, 1958), pp. 543-544.
“Pride and conceit were the original sin of man.”
Alain-René Lesage book Gil Blas
Book VII, ch. 3.
Gil Blas (1715-1735)
Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan
Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 12 “The Gentleman from Tralfamadore” (p. 285)
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Unpublished (and probably unsent) letter to the Providence Journal (13 April 1934), quoted in Collected Essays, Volume 5: Philosophy, edited by J. T. Joshi, pp. 115-116
Non-Fiction, Letters
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that.
Letter to Helen Keller, after she had been accused of plagiarism for one of her early stories (17 March 1903), published in Mark Twain's Letters, Vol. 1 (1917) edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, p. 731
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1846/feb/20/commercial-policy-customs-corn-laws in the House of Commons (20 February 1846). <br class="br">1840s
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Naturalization Ceremony speech (December 2015)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2016, Disabled American Veterans Convention (August 2016)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher
Second Dialogue; translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters
Dialogues: Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques (published 1782)
Nur Muhammad Taraki (1917–1979) Prime Minister of Afghanistan
Speech during the presentation of the new national symbols, October 19, 1978 https://pad.ma/BSI/info.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Responding to Republican criticism of his energy policy (5 August 2008) http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0808/05/sitroom.03.html <br class="br">2008
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Letter to Colette, December 28, 1916
1910s
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi5KkXig3s "Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death"
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, Citizenship in a Republic (1910)
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society
Source: Wozu noch Philosophie? [Why still philosophy?] (1963), p. 6
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to Elizabeth Toldridge (8 March 1929), in Selected Letters II, 1925-1929 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, p. 316
Non-Fiction, Letters
Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein
Act IV, sc. v, Kellermeister (Master of the Cellar)
Wallenstein (1798), Part I - Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini)