Source identified
“I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility.”
Ruskin defines greatness without self-worship: genuine ability can be recognized accurately while still being held inside a larger sense of proportion, dependence and responsibility.
Source note: Modern Painters, Volume III, Part IV, Chapter XVI, section 24, Project Gutenberg #38923. Ruskin immediately clarifies that humility does not mean doubt of one’s real power or hesitation about one’s opinions; it means understanding those powers in relation to a much larger world.
Source identified
“When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”
Pride is linked with poor judgment while humility is linked with wisdom, suggesting that accurate self-estimation improves decision making.
Source note: Proverbs 11:2 in the King James Version.
Source identified
“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator
Greatness is stripped of spectacle and measured instead by moral clarity, goodness, and freedom from unnecessary complication.
Source note: War and Peace; the narrator’s judgment of greatness appears in the novel’s discussion of Kutuzov, simplicity, goodness and truth.
Source identified
“The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
Humility is presented as preparation for wisdom and honour rather than as weakness, emphasizing teachability before status.
Source note: Proverbs 15:33 in the King James Version.
Source identified
“Simple, generous goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon.”
Voice: Fictional character · Friedrich Bhaer
Good character is compared with capital because generosity and reliability can support a life more durably than reputation or money alone, especially when circumstances change.
Source note: Little Men; Alcott contrasts durable goodness with forms of success that can disappear, treating moral character as a lasting foundation for life’s work.
Source identified
“Humility should not be an abasement; for it is never a virtue in man to lower himself.”
Janet sharply separates humility from self-degradation: accurate awareness of human weakness should coexist with dignity, so humility does not require pretending that one has no worth or abilities.
Source note: Elements of Morals, section 165, Caroline Rollin Corson translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. Janet contrasts humility with false abasement and defines it alongside self-respect as an accurate estimate of both human weakness and human dignity.