A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.
Joseph Addison

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.
Jean Jacques Rousseau

As blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.
Jonathan Swift

As in all his subsequent dealings with France, Ho Chi Minh's demands were a model of modesty.
Wilfred Burchett

At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.
Hector Berlioz

Because impudence is a vice, it does not follow that modesty is a virtue; it is built upon shame, a passion in our nature, and may be either good or bad according to the actions performed from that motive.
Bernard de Mandeville

Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
Louisa May Alcott

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered.
Harriet Martineau

Good taste is the modesty of the mind; that is why it cannot be either imitated or acquired.
Delphine de Girardin

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
Confucius

His modesty amounts to deformity.
Margot Asquith

I do not believe in sex distinction in literature, law, politics, or trade - or that modesty and virtue are more becoming to women than to men, but wish we had more of it everywhere.
Belva Lockwood

I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
Yves Saint Laurent

I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty... but I am too busy thinking about myself.
Edith Sitwell

I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way - I hope it never will.
Arnold Schwarzenegger

I think that for the highest achievements nowadays... need to have the stable as a rock scientific base. And also need to own modesty.
Alexander Alekhine

I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
Yves Saint Laurent

If modesty and candor are necessary to an author in his judgment of his own works, no less are they in his reader.
Sarah Fielding

If modesty disappeared, so would exhibitionism.
Mason Cooley

In all modesty, we must admit that governments are not always the best doctors when it comes to diagnosing economic ailments and prescribing the right treatment.
Kim Campbell