Humility quotes

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Chapter XXIII. Twain jokes that the gentle reader will not know what a consummate ass he can become until going abroad while satirizing travelers who adopt foreign affectations. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition; the line remains comic first-person travel narration, not a literal rule about every traveler.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV contrasts inward self-examination with dependence on others.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Calendar epigraph before the chapter section in which the flea comparison appears.

The Art of Literature, section “On Thinking for Oneself,” T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10714. The library analogy immediately precedes the sentence.

Of Peace of Mind, section VI, Aubrey Stewart translation (1889), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and Wikisource. Seneca orders practical deliberation as an examination of oneself, the proposed business, and the people for whose sake or in whose company it will be done.

The Imitation of Christ, Book I, Chapter XVI, “Of bearing with the faults of others,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653. The chapter advises patiently bearing what cannot presently be amended while also urging prayer and mutual forbearance; it remains Christian devotional counsel rather than permission to tolerate preventable harm.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV distinguishes ordinary faults from the refusal to reform them.

Chapter 41; the Astronomer explains why both competence and moral character are needed for trust.

Optimism: An Essay (1903), Project Gutenberg #31622. The following paragraph calls ignorant or indifferent optimism dangerous and false.

Pragmatism, Lecture II, “What Pragmatism Means”; Project Gutenberg #5116. The sentence follows James’s claim that theories become instruments rather than final answers.

An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter IX epigraph; the coal complaint follows the birth-and-funeral maxim in the Calendar sequence.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The simile compares a developing intellectual life with a slowly formed work of art.

The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, lines 15–16 in Pope’s 1717 revision; spoken by Clarissa. Her moralizing speech (Canto V lines 7–36) was added in 1717, so the inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717. The reviewed evidence opens the 1717 Canto V scan start; the exact couplet is independently preserved in the complete final-form text.

The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy, Volume II, Rome, W. G. Waters translation, Project Gutenberg #70839. Montaigne says this after describing how actively he sought out Roman public life; the point is epistemic modesty about what a stranger can really know, not a claim that travel is futile.

Up from Slavery, Chapter III, “The Struggle For An Education,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington describes General Samuel Chapman Armstrong’s influence at Hampton and argues that sustained contact with exemplary people can itself be a powerful form of education.

What Is Man?, Old Man concluding the Shakespeare/Gobelin comparison; “Gobelins” refers to elaborate tapestry and functions as the contrast with an ordinary sewing-machine.

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” beginning on printed page 242 / scan leaf 246 and continuing onto printed page 243 / scan leaf 247 in the fully validated 1912 Williams & Norgate Wikisource scan, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. The “no tincture of philosophy” sentence criticizes inherited common-sense, national and habitual prejudices that have not been examined by deliberate reason; it remains Russell’s philosophical argument rather than a diagnosis of people who do not study philosophy.

Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter XVI, “Of Providence,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. The passage is explicitly theological Stoicism: Epictetus says understanding should lead people to sing hymns, bless the deity and recount divine benefits.

The Renaissance, Conclusion; Project Gutenberg #2398. The sentence names Comte, Hegel and one’s own orthodoxy in its immediate continuation.

Meditations, Book IV, section 48 in George Long’s public-domain translation, Project Gutenberg #6920/#15877 tradition. The olive image follows a reflection on the shortness of life and frames gratitude as part of accepting mortality rather than denying loss.

Newton to Robert Hooke, Cambridge, February 5, 1675/76, represented by the Newton Project normalized transcription. The historical letter uses older spelling; this record follows the project’s normalized “farther” and “shoulders of giants” wording.

Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook, discussion of self-correcting didactic material. Project Gutenberg #29635. Montessori immediately describes the child’s own intelligence, rather than the teacher, as detecting and correcting the error.

Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. Ruskin is discussing how practice changes the viewer’s ability to recognize workmanship in art.

Tao Teh King, chapter 33, James Legge translation; the chapter continues by connecting contentment with richness and steadfastness with will.

Great Expectations (1861), global Chapter LIX / Volume III Chapter XX in the Chapman & Hall three-volume first book edition. Estella tells Pip that suffering has taught her to understand what his heart used to be and hopes that being “bent and broken” has left her in a better shape. Verified against the scan-backed Wikisource Volume III Chapter XX transcription and cross-checked with Project Gutenberg #1400. This remains a fictional character’s moral self-assessment, not empirical evidence that suffering reliably improves people.

Poem “Locksley Hall”; the contrast distinguishes readily acquired knowledge from the slower development of judgment and wisdom.

Meditations, Book VII, in George Long’s translation.

Emma, Volume III, Chapter XIII, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. The narrator observes that complete truth seldom belongs to any human disclosure while explaining that even the Emma–Knightley understanding contains mistaken conduct alongside genuine feeling.

An Ideal Husband, Act I; Lord Goring answers his father, Lord Caversham, “I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.” Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act I transcription and Project Gutenberg #885; this is comic fictional dialogue in their exchange about London society.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Calendar epigraph paired with the friendship maxim before the next narrative section.

Proverbs 11:2 in the King James Version.

What Is Man?, Part I, “a. Man the Machine. b. Personal Merit,” Project Gutenberg #70. The Old Man says “You and I are but sewing-machines” immediately after contrasting Shakespeare with a Gobelin loom and before insisting that people merely turn out what their inherited and external influences permit. This remains Twain’s comic-philosophical deterministic dialogue, not settled psychology or neuroscience.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2.

Job 12:7, King James Version; Job appeals to creatures and the earth as witnesses within his argument about divine power and human understanding.

An Essay on Criticism, Part III; Pope warns against reckless confidence and poor judgment in critics.

Self-Help, Chapter XII, “Example—Models,” Project Gutenberg #935. Smiles argues that character education depends heavily on models because people unconsciously mould themselves after the characters, manners, habits and opinions around them.

The Republic, Book V; Socrates places opinion between knowledge and ignorance in the argument about what each apprehends.

What Is Man?, opening machine-and-metal analogy; the Old Man uses iron and gold to argue for limits within his deterministic model of human development.

The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The claim belongs to Schopenhauer’s philosophical account of personality and subjective experience.