“These six dishes full of divers madrigals, the first fruits of my barren ground, unripe in regard of time, unsavoury in respect of others. Therefore taste, and again I pray you: if they like your appetite, spare not my orchard; if they offend your stomach, lay them by to ripen, and you shall prove of my latter vintage.”

Modest self-appraisal of early work as unripe fruit awaiting fuller harvest · Dedication to George Phillpot, Madrigals to 3, 4, 5 and 6 Voices, 1597

• Humility
• Music
• Writing

“Shirk responsibility—that's my philosophy. I do feel a sense of responsibility to the poor, but I don't want to go beyond writing a check.”

Preferring quiet support over public engagement or self-importance · Interview or conversation (New Yorker profile)

• Humility
• Independence
• Responsibility

“I cannot pretend that I should have been any good at it because my acquaintance lies chiefly among those who need help.”

A self-deprecating remark made while discussing fundraising for struggling writers. · Letter, 18 May 1908

• Charity
• Humility
• Writing

“If I fail in that attempt I shall not fret about it; others will do it later—what I have aimed at doing—and will probably do it better.”

A modest acceptance that literary ideals may be carried forward by others. · Conversation, as recalled in The Poets' Chantry

• Acceptance
• Humility
• Poetry

“Their want of worth could not divert my purpose from publishing to the world the zeal I bear to thankfulness.”

Offering the book as an act of gratitude rather than a claim of merit · Dedication to the Earl of Hertford, A Booke of Ayres, 1606

• Gratitude
• Humility
• Writing

“I have been thinking all day what I could do or write. Perhaps there is something if I could only think of it. Unfortunately, I have very little imagination.”

The self-deprecating claim is strikingly at odds with Joyce’s reputation for extraordinary imaginative invention. · Letter to Ezra Pound, 1917

• Humility
• Imagination
• Writing

“Not to be a textual critic is no reproach to anyone, unless he pretends to be what he is not.”

Valuing intellectual honesty above pretensions to expertise · Lecture, The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism, 1921

• Criticism
• Humility
• Sincerity

“I seem to you to have written everything, or at least a great deal; to myself I appear to have produced almost nothing.”

Original: Tibi omnia, vel certe multa, scripsisse videor; mihi autem paene nihil edidisse. — An ageing writer's sense that fame and inner judgement do not match. · Letter to Giovanni Boccaccio, 28 April 1373 (Latin)

• Fame
• Humility
• Writing

“Say to him who claims knowledge in philosophy: you have grasped one thing, but many things remain hidden from you.”

Original: قل لمن يدعي في العلم فلسفة، عرفت شيئاً وغابت عنك أشياء — A sharp jab at intellectual arrogance · Attributed witty rebuke (Arabic)

• Humility
• Knowledge
• Wit

“Were we to rate every friend's - sister's or brother's - idiosyncracies at the height of the second dispensation or even of that of Moses & the prophets our skirts should be of asbestos to save us from the reflex of our judicial fires.”

A witty warning against judging friends too harshly for their individual peculiarities · Letter to Maria Weston Chapman, December 25, 1883

• Humility
• Judgement
• Tolerance

“The sweetest flowers grow closest to the ground.”

A counsel of humility in subject and style · Advice to young poets at The Hights

• Advice
• Humility
• Poetry

“Princes have vouchsafed grace to trifles offered from a purity of devotion.”

Asking that sincerity count more than the smallness of the gift · Dedicatory epistle to 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, 1633

• Devotion
• Humility
• Patronage

“I cannot pretend to have travelled widely, but I have met many travellers, and I have noticed what they tell the public in print.”

A modest introduction to his observations about travel and travellers. · Speech, Some Aspects of Travel, 1914

• Humility
• Observation
• Travel

“I am ambitious of nothing but your Lordship's favourable acceptance and protection.”

Limiting ambition to a patron's acceptance of a first published work · Dedication to the Earl of Hertford, A Booke of Ayres, 1606

• Ambition
• Humility
• Patronage

“Happy is that man whose ideal of excellence is fixed far above the heads of the vulgar. This, and this alone, saves me; for I, alas, have all the weakness of flesh.”

On keeping praise at a distance by setting the standard higher than applause · Letter to Richard Henry Stoddard, about 1849

• Excellence
• Fame
• Humility

“To place a man in permanent absolute control of a certain number of pages, in which to express his opinions, is to place him in a position of great personal danger.”

Warning that unchecked authority to judge others can distort a critic's sense of his own importance · Ponkapog Papers, Leaves from a Note Book (1903)

• Character
• Criticism
• Humility

“If Palmerin hath sustained any wrong by my bad translation, being so worthily set down in other languages, your Honour, having such special knowledge in them, I hope will let slip any fault escaped in respect I have done my goodwill, the largest talent I have to bestow.”

A modest defence of his work as a translator, offering goodwill as the measure of his effort · Dedicatory epistle, Palmerin d’Oliva (1588)

• Effort
• Humility
• Writing

“I am taking the opportunity to send you the last book I have written. I doubt whether you will care to read it; I doubt whether you will like it, if you do.”

A wonderfully self-deprecating response to the prospect of burdening a friend with a book · Letter to Ireland, January 15, 1885

• Books
• Humility
• Writing

“I call my verses only semi-poetry, and my realities, subject to the laws of ordinary mortal life, I dare call nothing more than possibility.”

Original: Yo no llamo a mis versos sino semi-poesía, y a mis realidades, que obedecen a la ley de vida de los simples mortales, no oso llamar otra cosa que posibilidad. — Characterising his work with modesty and an awareness of human limitation · Academy address, Semi-poesía y posibilidad, 1938 (Spanish)

• Humility
• Life
• Poetry

“The lot of the novelist is, in fact, hard—but not harder than that of any other man.”

Refusing to romanticise the difficulties of the writer’s profession · The English Novel

• Humility
• Work
• Writing

“Set me down as a fool if you like, but never doubt the friendship which makes me subscribe myself, yours always.”

Putting personal loyalty above pride or reputation · Letter to George R. Sims

• Friendship
• Humility
• Trust

“He is beloved and humble, like a branch loaded with fruit: the fruit weighs it down. A branch with no fruit lifts its head high.”

Original: او محبوب و متواضع است چون شاخی که بار میوه دارد؛ میوه او را فرو می‌کشد. شاخ بی‌میوه سر برمی‌آورد. — Humility is treated as the natural posture of abundance, not of lack. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 25 (Persian)

• Abundance
• Character
• Humility

“There being scarce any spectacle more pleasing to God and Man then to see the proud humbled.”

A characteristic Marvellian pleasure in seeing arrogance brought low · The Rehearsal Transpros'd: The Second Part

• Humility
• Justice
• Power

“Even the greatest man on earth must nurture the child within his breast.”

Original: Den største mann på jorden må pleie barnet i sitt bryst. — Advocates preserving childlike openness and wonder regardless of status · Attributed remark (Norwegian)

• Childhood
• Greatness
• Humility