89
The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself or less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.
- Tim Keller
88
The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.
- G.K. Chesterton
86
Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because He shows us both God and our own wretchedness.
- Blaise Pascal
85
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
- Augustine
84
God is not proud. He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him.
- C.S. Lewis
83
The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.
- Blaise Pascal
82
Let us watch against pride in every shape - pride of intellect, pride of wealth, pride in our own goodness, pride in our own deserts. Nothing is so likely to keep a man out of heaven, and prevent him seeing Christ, as pride. So long as we think we are something, we shall never be saved.
- J. C. Ryle
81
One of our troubles is we are not willing to humble ourselves. We are not willing to give up our opinions as to how things should be done.
- Mordecai Ham
80
Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow.
- Henry Ward Beecher
79
Self-righteousness is the devil's masterpiece to make us think well of ourselves.
- Thomas Adams
78
If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?
- Blaise Pascal
77
The essence of Gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.
- Tim Keller
72
Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority that is the gravity of our sinful nature, not grace.
- Phillips Brooks
70
It is an invariable maxim in his kingdom, that whosoever exalts himself, shall be abased; but he that humbles himself, shall be exalted.
- John Newton
68
The cause why our oppressors prevail oft against us is, because we trust too much in our own wits, and lean too much upon our own inventions opposing subtility to subtility, one evil device to another, matching and maintaining policy by policy, and not committing our cause to God.
- Abraham Wright
66
Many are convinced, who are not truly enlightened; are afraid of the consequences of sin, though they never saw its evil; have a seeming desire of salvation, which is not founded upon a truly spiritual discovery of their own wretchedness, and the Excellency of Jesus.
- John Newton
65
In all unbelief there are these two things: a good opinion of one's self, and a bad opinion of God.
- Horatius Bonar
62
An accession of wealth is a dangerous predicament for a man. At first he is stunned if the accession be sudden, and is very humble and very grateful. Then he begins to speak a little louder, people think him more sensible, and soon he thinks himself so.
- Richard Cecil
61
So long as we are full of self we are shocked at the faults of others. Let us think often of our own sin, and we shall be lenient to the sins of others.
- Francois Fenelon
60
In the midst of a world of light and love, of song and feast and dance, Lucifer could find nothing to think of more interesting than his own prestige.
- C.S. Lewis
59
The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.
- Henry Ward Beecher
58
Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority that is the gravity of our sinful nature, not grace.
- Philip Yancey
56
The natural life in each of us is something self-centred, something that wants to be petted and admired, to take advantage of other lives, to exploit the whole universe.
- C.S. Lewis
55
How many covet that they may boast? How many desire more glory for their flesh?
- Watchman Nee
53
No matter how dear you are to God, if pride is harbored in your spirit, He will whip it out of you. They that go up in their own estimation must come down again by His discipline.
- Charles Spurgeon
52
It is this unquiet self-love that renders us so sensitive. The sick man, who sleeps ill, thinks the night long. We exaggerate, from cowardice, all the evils which we encounter; they are great, but our sensibility increases them.
- Francois Fenelon
51
To attempt to pay for salvation with church membership, prayers, or good deeds is an insult to Christ, who paid the full price--and is a rejection of the gift of God's grace.
- Dave Hunt
49
If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.
- G.K. Chesterton
48
In some dispositions there is such an envious kind of pride that they cannot endure that any but themselves should be set forth for excellent; so that when they hear one justly praised, they will either seek to dismount his virtues, or, if they be like a clear light, they will stab him with a "but" of detraction.
- Owen Feltham
47
We are looking for our own virtue, our own piety, our own goodness, and so live on and in our own poverty and weakness - today pleased and comforted with the seeming firmness and strength of our own pious tempers and fancying ourselves to be somewhat. Tomorrow, fallen into our own mire, we are dejected, but not humbled; we grieve, but it is only the grief of pride at the seeing our perfection not to be such as we had vainly imagined. And thus it will be, till the whole turn of our minds be so changed that we as fully see and know our inability to have any goodness of our own as to have a life of our own.
- William Law
46
This [pride] is the strong castle that we all keep garrisoned against heaven in every one of our hearts, which God continually layeth siege unto.
- Assorted Authors
45
There is nothing into which the heart of man so easily falls as pride, and yet there is no more vice which is more frequently, more emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture. Pride is a thing which should be unnatural to us, for we have nothing to be proud of. In almost every other sin, we gather us ashes when the fire is gone. But here, what is left? The covetous man has his shining gold, but what does the proud man have? He has less than he would have had without pride, and is no gainer whatever. Pride wins no crown.
- Charles Spurgeon
44
A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
- Henry Ward Beecher
43
We hear much of a decent pride, a becoming pride, a noble pride, a laudable pride. Can that be decent, of which we ought to be ashamed? Can that be becoming, of which God has set forth the deformity? Can that be noble which God resists and is determined to abase? Can that be laudable, which God calls abominable? Providence is a greater mystery than revelation. The state of the world is more humiliating to our reason than the doctrines of the Gospel. A reflecting Christian sees more to excite his astonishment, and to exercise his faith, in the state of things between Temple Bar and St. Paul's, than in what he reads from Genesis to Revelations.
- Richard Cecil
41
And what else is the cause of all transgression, but that man's ignorant pride will have his will preferred to the will of God.
- William Cowper