“Wise is the prince who stands at the door of the poor; wretched are the poor who stand at the door of the prince.”

Original: نیکو امیری است آن که بر در درویش ایستد و بد درویشی است آن که بر در امیر ایستد. — Need is judged by which threshold a person chooses to wait at. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 1 (Persian)

• Dignity
• Poverty
• Pride

“This makes us easy in the midst of them, fond to shew them, fond to improve in them, and to be esteemed for them.”

We not only miss our faults but parade them as accomplishments · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Pride
• Self Deception
• Vanity

“For there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you.”

A sharp denunciation of literary borrowing and theatrical ambition, traditionally understood as an attack on Shakespeare. · Groats-Worth of Wit

• Authors
• Criticism
• Pride

“Mankind is thus managed by the breath of Opinion, deluded by Errour, fired by Self-Conceit, and given up to be trained in all the courses of Vanity, till Scorn or Poverty come upon us.”

A chain from public opinion to eventual disgrace · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Pride
• Public Opinion
• Vanity

“I prefer a thousand times to belong to an oppressed race, sure and proud of what I am, than to be anything like you, a vile loathsome pathetic crawling filthy worm of the world of oppressors.”

Choosing oppressed identity over the manners of the oppressor · Letter, reply to a white correspondent

• Dignity
• Pride
• Race

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”

Giving and restraint as twin measures of character · Sand and Foam, 1926

• Generosity
• Need
• Pride

“The proudest pride is born chiefly on the occasion of impotence.”

Original: Le plus farouche orgueil naît surtout à l'occasion d'une impuissance. — Pride can become a defence against the painful awareness of one's own limitations. · Mauvaises pensées et autres (French)

• Imperfection
• Pride
• Psychology

“Five enemies of peace live with us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride; if these were banished, we should enjoy perpetual peace.”

Original: Quinque pacis hostes nobiscum habitant: avaritia, ambitio, invidia, ira et superbia; his exactis perpetua pace frueremur. — Peace is framed as an inner expulsion of the passions rather than a political settlement. · Widely attributed from De remediis utriusque fortunae (Latin)

• Anger
• Peace
• Pride

“A great error is to think more highly of oneself than one is, and to value oneself less than one is worth.”

Original: Ein großer Fehler: daß man sich mehr dünkt, als man ist, und sich weniger schätzt, als man wert ist. — Goethe identifies both arrogance and needless self-deprecation as distortions of self-knowledge. · Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years (German)

• Humility
• Pride
• Self

“The devil, even if he is a fact, has been an indulgence; while he exists, there is always something to which we can be superior.”

Satan as a convenient object of unearned pride · The Descent of the Dove

• Evil
• Pride
• Religion

“In the realms of creation, which are also realms of pride, the need to distinguish oneself is inseparable from existence itself.”

Original: Dans les domaines de la création, qui sont aussi les domaines de l'orgueil, la nécessité de se distinguer est indivisible de l'existence même. — Creative individuality is linked to the desire to establish a distinctive identity. · Variété (French)

• Creation
• Originality
• Pride

“Many promising reconciliations have broken down because while both parties come prepared to forgive, neither party come prepared to be forgiven.”

Forgiveness fails when pride will not receive it · Essay collected in The Image of the City

• Forgiveness
• Pride
• Reconciliation

“Never be so proud as to refuse it.”

Advice against pride · Autograph note to Eliza Lynn Linton, 1858

• Advice
• Humility
• Pride

“I had several events this month that flattered my pride, so I experienced several moments of happiness. Admit that it is a wretched life that finds happiness in such things.”

Original: Miałem w tym miesiącu kilka zdarzeń pochlebiających mojej dumie, więc doznałem kilka chwil szczęścia, wyznajcie, że nędzne to życie, co w tym szczęścia szuka! — He recognises the emptiness of confusing wounded pride with genuine happiness. · Letter to his mother, December 1832 (Polish)

• Happiness
• Pride
• Self Knowledge

“I don't think I should ask them a favour for myself or my own family.”

Scruple about using his consular position · Letter to his wife, Glasgow, September 5, 1884

• Independence
• Pride

“I am ready for perfection, yet I am consumed by pride.”

Original: Je suis prêt pour la perfection... Orgueil. — Rimbaud immediately undercuts his claim to perfection by recognising the pride behind it. · A Season in Hell, Night in Hell, 1873 (French)

• Perfection
• Pride
• Self Knowledge