102 Thoughtful Quotes to Help Humble Yourself in Life

They say humility is the foundation of many virtues, but at the same time, it is an elusive trait. Many of us aspire to it, yet once we know how humble we are and start talking about it, we prove the exact opposite.

Humility means more than just the absence of pride. Humble people are more approachable -- they actively listen, are willing to help, often put others first and they are always polite. A humble person will never be afraid to talk about someone else’s success because they know there is plenty of opportunity to go around.

Humble people are also receptive to constructive criticism -- they know there’s always room for improvement. When you are modest and smart enough to acknowledge what you do and do not know, you will never shy away from asking others to help you.

However, some people associate humility with being insecure or submissive, but this couldn’t be any further from the truth. Humble people are confident and competent, but they don’t feel the need to brag about it. They let their actions speak for them.

Here are 102 humble quotes about humility and staying humble through life:

Humble quotes from the Bible

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

JAMES 4:7-8

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

COLOSSIANS 3:12

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

EPHESIANS 4:2

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.

JAMES 4:6

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

JAMES 4:10

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

CHRONICLES 7:14

For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

LUKE 14:11

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

MICAH 6:8

He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.

PROVERBS 3:34

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

PROVERBS 11:2

Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips.

PROVERBS 27:2

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

PSALM 25:9

For the lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.

PSALM 149:4

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

ROMANS 12:3

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

ROMANS 12:16

Humble quotes about life

Life is a long lesson in humility. 

J.M. BARRIE

We are all stumblers, and the beauty and meaning of life are in the stumbling.

DAVID BROOKS

Humility, like gratitude, is not so much a technique as it is a way of life.

ED LATIMORE

What are the things that you can’t see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love. You can’t see any of those, but they’re the guiding lights of a life.

JIMMY CARTER

If you’re not humble, life will visit humbleness upon you.

MIKE TYSON

Realize that you are simultaneously everything and nothing -- and decide what you want to be.

RAY DALIO

The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable.

DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD

It's much easier on the emotions when one sees life as an experiment rather than a struggle for popularity. 

CRISS JAMI

A mistake that makes us humble is better than an achievement that makes us arrogant. 

UNKNOWN

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

COLIN POWELL

To live free is to live in humility: you don’t pretend, you don’t show off.

MAXIME LAGACÉ

We’re all the stars of our own movies, but cutting back on the number of ‘Do you know who I am?’ thoughts, made my life infinitely smoother.

DAN HARRIS

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

The best leaders are humble enough to realize their victories depend upon their people.

JOHN C. MAXWELL (more John C. Maxwell quotes)

Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble. 

SHAH RUKH KHAN

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. 

CAMILLE PISSARRO

You cannot be truly humble, unless you truly believe that life can and will go on without you. 

MOKOKOMA MOKHONOANA

A great man is always willing to be little.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.

CRISS JAMI

Humility will open more doors than arrogance ever will.

ZIG ZIGLAR

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility.

T.S. ELIOT

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does. 

THOMAS À KEMPIS

Funny humble quotes

I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.

CARL JUNG

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

Chickens don’t praise their own soup.

MARTINICAN PROVERB

Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.

ANN LANDERS

If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness, it’s possible that I’m a little too awesome.

BARACK OBAMA

Just remember, when someone has an accent, it means that he knows one more language than you do.

SIDNEY SHELDON

Who knows himself a braggart, let him fear this, for it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

I want to establish that I’m a dumb sh*t who doesn’t know much relative to what I need to know.

RAY DALIO 

Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware. The cosmic banana peel is suddenly going to appear underfoot to make sure you don’t take it all too seriously, that you don’t fill up on junk food.

ANNE LAMOTT

Flattery is all right so long as you don’t inhale.

ADLAI STEVENSON

Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

If your sentence starts with I could be wrong, it’s a good sign you should shut your mouth or ask a question.

SHANE PARRISH

Don’t talk about yourself; it will be done when you leave.

WILSON MIZNER

Humble quotes about love

Everyone is worthy of love, except him who thinks that he is. Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling. 

OSCAR WILDE

A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble broken-hearted love. 

JONATHAN EDWARDS

Humility is the essence of love and intelligence; it is not an achievement.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

Humble yourself, and you will find that Love is spreading a carpet of flowers beneath your feet. 

HANNAH HURNARD

The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one's narcissism. 

ERICH FROMM

The world tells us to seek success, power and money; God tells us to seek humility, service and love.

POPE FRANCIS

Shine your soul with the same egoless humility as the rainbow and no matter where you go in this world or the next, love will find you, attend you, and bless you. 

ABERJHANI

True devotion and humility is when you carelessly allow yourself to fall in love with things you consider will make you look inferior, which in essence, makes you superior. 

MICHAEL BASSEY JOHNSON

Humility wins. Love conquers.

ROBIN SHARMA

It takes a fearless, unflinching love and deep humility to accept the universe as it is.

ANN DRUYAN

Stay humble and never think that you are better than anyone else. We are all humans and crave acceptance and love. 

UNKNOWN

Be kind, work hard, stay humble, smile often, stay loyal, be honest, travel when possible, never stop learning, love always. 

UNKNOWN

Humility quotes

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

RICK WARREN

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.

THOMAS MERTON

‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.

ALICE WALKER

The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it.

MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN

Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.

SIMONE WEIL

Humility, like the darkness, reveals the heavenly lights.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.

EZRA T. BENSON

Humility is really important because it keeps you fresh and new.

STEVEN TYLER

Selflessness is humility. Humility and freedom go hand in hand. Only a humble person can be free.

JEFF WILSON

True humility any man who thoroughly knows himself must feel; but it is not a humility that assumes a worm-like meekness; it is rather a strong, vibrant prayer for greater power for service.

Dale Carnegie (more Dale Carnegie quotes)

True humility does not know that it is humble. If it did, it would be proud from the contemplation of so fine a virtue.

MARTIN LUTHER

Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.

THOMAS MOORE

In reality, humility means nothing other than complete honesty about yourself.

WILLIAM COUNTRYMAN

Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else.

MADELEINE L'ENGLE

Have more humility. Remember you don't know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life--and maybe even please a few strangers.

A.L. KENNEDY

Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL

Mastery begins with humility.

ROBIN SHARMA

Pride is the problem, humility is the answer.

JOYCE MEYER

Humility is the proper estimate of oneself.

CHARLES SPURGEON

If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility. 

ST. AUGUSTINE

Stay humble quotes

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up.

JESSE JACKSON

Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.

ANDREW MURRAY

One cannot be humble and aware of oneself at the same time.

MADELEINE L'ENGLE

Remember that no matter how cool you think you may be, you’re not cool enough to look down on anyone…ever.

PAUL WALKER (more Paul Walker quotes)

Being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others. 

GORDON B. HINCKLEY

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

ALEXANDER POPE

To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength. 

CRISS JAMI

I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk. 

UNKNOWN

Stay true in the dark & humble in the spotlight. 

HAROLD B. LEE

My mantra is: Humble yourself. Discover what your monsters are. Be honest with yourself.

TERRY CREWS (more Terry Crews quotes)

Don't discount the importance of being humble. There's a value there far greater than pride can ever provide. 

KRISTEN BUTLER

Being humble is to be felt, it's not something that you show off. 

NAYA

If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. 

MOTHER TERESA

If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important, and you do that by being genuine and humble.

NELSON MANDELA (more Nelson Mandela quotes)

There’s no need to show off when you know who you are.

MAXIME LAGACÉ

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

BLAISE PASCAL