225 Quotes About Humility

We had long known the Lord without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart should be the distinguishing feature of the disciple.

It is an invariable maxim in his kingdom, that whosoever exalts himself, shall be abased; but he that humbles himself, shall be exalted.

It's not about you!

The only shame is to have none.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.

Only those who have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves, and to be confounded with shame at their wretchedness truly understand the Christian gospel.

If what they are saying about you is true, mend your ways. If it isn't true, forget it, and go on and serve the Lord.

I know for me, going back the person I've bad-mouthed or lied to is absolutely humiliating! But isn't it interesting that "humiliating" has the same root word as "humility"? Part of humility is taking responsibility for my sin and asking forgiveness even when it doesn't feel good. God wants to heal and restore your relationships, but it's not easy.

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.

Do you think the devil is impressed by anyone's Bible knowledge or degree-certificates? Not at all. Satan fears only holy, humble men and women who know God.

God hears no more than the heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf.

The most holy men are always the most humble men; none so humble on earth as those that live highest in heaven.

How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? which is more than if he had said, such a one should dwell with him; for a beggar to live at court is not so much as the king to dwell with him in his cottage.

He that is down need fear no fall.

We must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.

Humility is so shy. If you begin talking about it, it leaves.

We may easily be too big for God to use, but never too small.

Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own.

Whenever we receive Communion, we must do so in humility and brokenness before God. We must rejoice and be grateful and thankful for our salvation.

The best definition of humility I ever heard was this - to think rightly of ourselves.

It is true that a fellow cannot ignore women - but he can think of them as he ought - as sisters, not as sparring partners.

He is truly great that is little in himself, and that maketh no account of any height of honors.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

The poor in spirit views himself as possessing nothing.

If you are not willing to take the shame on yourself, you then let it remain on Jesus Christ. You must bear the reproach of your sinful state of indifference, or the cause of our Master must bear it.

The greatest test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God's holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest.

The focus of health in the soul is humility, while the root of inward corruption is pride. In the spiritual life, nothing stands still. If we are not constantly growing downward into humility, we shall be steadily swelling up and running to seed under the influence of pride.

My fall was not the result of one single and consistent wrong-minded decision, but rather it was an accumulation of My fall came as a consequences to acknowledge my need for a Savior.

Their more lowly paths have been allotted to them by the hand of God. It is their part faithfully to discharge its duties, and contentedly to bear its inconveniences.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

Natural ability and educational advantages do not figure as factors in this matter of prayer; but a capacity for faith, the power of a thorough consecration, the ability of self-littleness, an absolute losing of one's self in God's glory and an ever present and insatiable yearning and seeking after all the fullness of God.

Great is he who enjoys his earthenware as if it were plate, and not less great is the man to whom all his plate is no more than earthenware.

Without this heart attitude it is exceedingly difficult for us to accept the circumcision of the flesh. Every affection, desire, thought, knowledge, intent, worship, and work of the flesh must go to the cross.

Unwillingness to accept God's "way of escape" from temptation frightens me what a rebel yet resides within.

Forgive thyself little and others much.

Timidity is not humility. While humility is self-forgetfulness completely- a forgetting both its weakness and strength-timidity recalls all the weakness and hence is self-remembering. God does not delight in our cowardice and withdrawal.

Keep your heart as you would a prisoner.

To be laughted at is no great hardship to me. I can delight in scoffs and jeers Caricatures, lampoons, and slanders are my glory. But that you should turn from your own mercy, that is my sorrow. Spit on me, but, oh, repent! Laugh at me, but, oh, believe in my Master! Make my body as the dirt of the streets, but damn not your own souls!

Perfect humility dispenses with modesty.

The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us in our daily conduct.

There is nothing in the world that works such satanic, profound, God-defiant pride as false assurance; nothing works such utter humility, or brings to such utter self-emptiness, as the child-like spirit of true assurance.

Lowliness is not looking down on one's self; rather is it a not looking at one's self at all.

A humble knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than a deep search after learning.

The law stops every man's mouth. God will have a man humble himself down on his face before Him, with not a word to say for himself. Then God will speak to him, when he owns that he is a sinner, and gets rid of all his own righteousness.

Towards himself a Christian should have a broken spirit, but towards God it should be one of rejoicing always in Him. He rejoices not for its own sake nor because of any joyful experience, work, blessing or circumstance, but exclusively because God is his center.

Clay is earth with humility.

A humble sinner is in a better condition than a proud angel.

He has great tranquility of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men.

If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray. The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.

One of the grandest things in having rights is that though they are your rights you may give them up.

True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will.

Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.

The higher a man is in grace. The lower he will be in his own esteem.

Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.

Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise not blame.

Faith is the champion of grace, and love the nurse; but humility is the beauty of grace.

The beginning of greatness is to be little; the increase of greatness is to be less; the perfection of greatness is to be nothing.

Every Christian has a choice between being humble or being humbled.

The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us in our daily conduct.

The lesson for each believer is to humble himself, not to wait for the Lord to humble him.

Absalom, who was a fool, wished himself a judge; Solomon, who was a wise man, trembles at the undertaking, and suspects his own fitness for it. The more knowing and considerate men are, the better they are acquainted with their own weakness, and the more jealous of themselves.

True humility is a kind of self-annihilation; and this is the centre of all virtues.

In the midst of our triumphs, let us cry to God for humility.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion; I should reply that the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.

Nothing will keep the heart tender so much as cultivating the spirit of filial awe.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

It is part of a poor spirit to undervalue himself and blush.

God was so precious to my soul that the world with all its enjoyments appeared vile. I had no more value for the favor of men than for pebbles.

Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes. The poorest Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility.

The frost is God's plough which he drives through every inch of ground in the world, opening each clod, and pulverizing the whole.

Authority exercised with humility, and obedience accepted with delight are the very lines along which our spirits live.

Humility is something we should constantly pray for, yet never thank God that we have.

The surest way to know our gold is to look upon it and examine it in God's furnace, where he tries it that we may see what it is. If we have a mind to know whether a building stands strong or no, we must look upon it when the wind blows. If we would know whether a staff be strong, or a rotten, broken reed, we must observe it when it is leaned on and weight is borne upon it. If we would weigh ourselves justly we must weigh ourselves in God's scales that he makes use of to weigh us.

It seems to me, as time goes on, that the only thing that is worth seeking for is to know and to be known by Christ -- a privilege open alone to the childlike, who, with receptivity, guilelessness, and humility, move Godward.

'My sin is ever before me' [Psalm 51.3]. A humble soul sees that he can stay no more from sin, than the heart can from panting, and the pulse from beating. He sees his heart and life to be fuller of sin, than the firmament is of stars; and this keeps him low. He sees that sin is so bred in the bone, that till his bones, as Joseph's, be carried out of the Egypt of this world, it will not out. Though sin and grace were never born together, and though they shall not die together, yet while the believer lives, these two must live together; and this keeps him humble.

Do not desire to be the principal man in the church. Be lowly. Be humble. The best man in the church is the man who is willing to be a doormat for all to wipe their boots on, the brother who does not mind what happens to him at all, so long as God is glorified.

Lord, teach us more what we are by nature, and what we are by grace.

Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.

Humility alone unites patience with love; without which it is impossible to draw profit from suffering; or indeed, to avoid complaint, especially when we think we have given no occasion for what men make us suffer.

A true saint is a divine landscape or picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth. He hath the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will with Christ.

Before He furnishes the abundant supply, we must first be made conscious of our emptiness. Before he gives strength, we must be made to feel our weakness. Slow, painfully slow, are we to learn this lesson; and slower still to own our nothingness and take the place of helplessness before the Mighty One.

Many a humble soul will be amazed to find that the seed it sowed in weakness, in the dust of daily life, has blossomed into immortal flowers under the eye of the Lord.

Keep us little and unknown, prized and loved by God alone.

Often we want people to pray for us and help us, but we always defeat our object when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret of union is for both to look upon God, and in the act of looking past themselves to Him they are unconsciously united.

We had long known the Lord without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart should be the distinguishing feature of the disciple.

It is easier not to speak a word at all than to speak more words than we should.

All men are frail, but thou shouldst reckon none so frail as thyself.

Our own opinion of ourselves should be lower than that formed by others, for we have a better chance at our imperfections.

Before God could bring me to this place He has broken me a thousand times.

The greatest test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God's holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest.

Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?

Humility is the proper estimate of oneself.

It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment.

You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough.

Think of the guilt of sin, that you may be humbled. Think of the power of sin, that you may seek strength against it. Think not of the matter of sin...lest you be more and more entangled.

Learn to break your own will. Be zealous against yourself.

It is good to renew ourselves, from time to time, by closely examining the state of our souls, as if we had never done it before; for nothing tends more to the full assurance of faith, than to keep ourselves by this means in humility, and the exercise of all good works.

The mercies of God make a sinner proud, but a saint humble.

The people of the Lord in humility are to lay themselves and their prayers, and all that they have, at the foot of their God, to be disposed of by him as he in his heavenly wisdom seeth best. Yet not doubting but God will answer the desire of his people that way that shall be most for their advantage and his glory. When the saints therefore do pray with submission to the will of God, it doth not argue that they are to doubt or question God's love and kindness to them. But because they at all times are not so wise, but that sometimes Satan may get that advantage of them, as to tempt them to pray for that which, if they had it, would neither prove to God's glory nor his people's good.

If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Integrity is built by defeating the temptation to be dishonest; humility grows when we refuse to be prideful; and endurance develops every time you reject the temptation to give up.

Let me be dressed fine as I will, Flies, worms, and flowers, exceed me still.

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.

He that will be knighted must kneel for it, and he that will enter in at the strait gate must crowd for it--a gate made so on purpose, narrow and hard in the entrance, yet, after we have entered, wide and glorious, that after our pain our joy may be the sweeter.

It is not the glorious battlements, the painted windows, the crouching gargoyles that support a building, but the stones that lie unseen in or upon the earth. It is often those who are despised and trampled on that bear up the weight of a whole nation.

Because of their ignorance concerning the spirit's operation, those who honestly desire deeper experience upon having overcome sin may all too easily be led astray into seeking so called "spiritual" Bible knowledge with their minds, or a burning sensation of the Lord's presence in their physical members, or a life and labor emanating from their will power. They are deceived into overly esteeming their soul experiences and thus fall into conceiving themselves as ever so spiritual. For this reason God's children must be very humble before Him and seek to know the teaching of the Bible and the functioning of the spirit through the Holy Spirit in order that they may walk by the spirit.

Humble souls are fearful of their own strength.

You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,' said Aslan. 'And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor in earth.'

You are not holier if you are praised, nor the more worthless if you are found fault with.

Let not your peace rest in the utterances of men, for whether they put a good or bad construction on your conduct does not make you other than you are.

The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss.

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.

With any recovery from morbidity there must go a certain healthy humiliation.

Lord God, I thank thee that thou hast been pleased to make me a poor and indigent man upon earth. I have neither house nor land nor money to leave behind me.

A wise man looks upon men as he does on horses; all their caparisons of title, wealth, and place, he considers but as harness.

Don't give your advice before you are called upon.

Be deaf to the quarrelsome, blind to the scorner and dumb to the inquisitive.

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self.

Oh that I was lowly in heart! Honor and dishonor, good report and evil report would then be alike, and prove a furtherance to me in my Christian cause.

A lowly person is a teachable person, easily entreated and open to explanation. Many of our spirits are too arrogant: they can teach others but can never themselves be taught. Many possess a stubborn spirit: they stick to their opinions even if they realize they are wrong.

A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.

He that is down needs fear no fall. He that is low, no pride; He that is humble, ever shall have God to be his Guide.

Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His lordship.

What you are, that you are; neither by word can you be made greater than what you are in the sight of God.

The right manner of growth is to grow less in one's own eyes.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

Christian humility does not consist in denying what there is of good in us; but in an abiding sense of ill-desert, and the consciousness that what we have of good is due to the grace of God.

God is not looking for extraordinary characters as His instruments, but He is looking for humble instruments through whom He can be honored throughout the ages.

I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grow in Christian character the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower.

What difference does it make to you what someone else becomes, or says, or does? You do not need to answer for others, only for yourself.

All things I thought I knew; but now confess, the more I know I know, I know the less.

The most critical need of the church at this moment is men, bold men, free men. The church must seek, in prayer and much humility, the coming again of men made of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made.

No conflict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself.

So many things-nay every real thing-is good if only it will be humble and ordinate.

He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see (and I am glad!), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough).

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.

Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.

Now should the Christian be deceived already, then he fights to regain his freedom. If not, then he strives to rescue others and to prevent the foe from attacking.

If thou wouldst find much favor and peace with God and man, be very low in thine own eyes. Forgive thyself little and others much.

Send your noble blood to market and see what it will bring.

For years, maybe, you have tried fruitlessly to exercise control over yourself, and perhaps this is still your experience; but when once you see the truth you will recognize that you are indeed powerless to do anything, but that in setting you aside altogether God has done it all. Such discovery brings human striving and self-effort to an end.

My chief concern is to try to be a humble, earnest Christian.

Self-denial is the test and definition of self-government.

The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us in our daily conduct.

The greatest test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God's holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest.

Now, as always, God discloses Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.

Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail, nor reason.

Humility is a necessary veil to all other graces.

Great is the difference betwixt a man's being frightened at, and humbled for his sins.

The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled... It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.

I have learned that much of my spiritual progress does not come directly from God, but through my ability to humble myself and hear Him speak through imperfect people. In fact, I have discovered that it pleases Him to hide His manifold wisdom in a variety of people and denominational perspectives. I know that the more I humble myself to others, the broader my understanding of God has actually become.

We must quit bending the Word to suit our situation. It is we who must be bent to that Word, our necks that must bow under the yoke.

Humility is the guardian of virtue.

It is a little learning, and but a little, which makes men conclude hastily. Experience and humility teach modesty and fear.

A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

It is a contradiction to be a true Christian and not humble.

If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows, then we must starve eternally.

Emulation, in the sense of a laudable amoition, is founded on humility, for it implies that we have a low opinion of our present, and think it necessary to advance and make improvement.

Only the poor in spirit can be humble. How often the experience, growth, and progress of a Christian become such precious matters to him that he loses his lowliness.

Humility is nothing else but a right judgment of ourselves.

Look upon the unworthy worm before you. Let him be as your mouth in separating the precious from the vile. Grant that he may rightly divide the word of truth and rightly divide the hearers. Grant that he may exalt the Savior and lay the sinner low.

Experience is the Lord's school, and they who are taught by Him usually learn by the mistakes they make that in themselves they have no wisdom; and by their slips and falls, that they have no strength.

A lowly spirit is demonstrated when one associates with the poor. It is this spirit alone which does not despise any who are created by God. God's presence and glory is manifested in the life of the spiritually humble.

God's choice acquaintances are humble men.

Whoever will labor to get rid of self, to deny himself according to the instructions of Christ, strikes at once at the root of every evil, and finds the germ of every good.

No man can ever lack this mortification of his vanity, that what he knows is but a very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of. Consider this, and instead of boasting thy knowledge of a few things, confess and be out of countenance for the many more which thou dost not understand.

Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.

You must not do, you must not even try to do, the will of the Father unless you are prepared to 'know of the doctrine'.

What we henceforth hate is our life; what we wholly love is the Lord. Such persons cannot but utter the cry of Mary: "My soul magnifies the Lord" (Luke 1:46). No longer is there self importance, either in public or in private.

Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.

If I could say I am a better man than when I began life in Christ, it would be only because I see more of my own vileness now than I did years ago.

Let this be thy whole Endeavour, this thy prayer, this thy desire, that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only.

If pride turned some of the angels into demons, then humility can doubtless make angels out of demons.