Mason Cooley Quotes

That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty.

I was brought up to think you don't talk about yourself.

The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity.

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

If I started being braggy, my family would be like, 'Shut up, Maisie! Who cares? Get off the sofa.'

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.

The only sure way of avoiding these evils [vanity and boasting] is never to speak of yourself at all. But when, historically, youare obliged to mention yourself, take care not to drop one single word that can directly or indirectly be construed as fishing for applause.

I was raised to be modest to the point of fanaticism. In my family, we don't talk about ourselves to each other. Vanity is considered the worst possible sin. I've gotten better about having to describe things. If you're going to make a record and people are going to write about you, it's your responsibility to answer questions. It's validating - I'm just very clumsy.

Where I grew up - we started out in Oklahoma and then moved to Missouri - it was considered hubris to talk about yourself. And the downside of that was that ideas rarely got exchanged, or true feelings.

Well I don't want to talk about myself, that's so rude and egotistical.

Any time you talk about your own stuff you sound self-aggrandising.

Modesty, tis a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.

I don't know how to explain how, probably to my detriment, unselfpromoting I am. I used to have a cabaret act and I didn't even like to tell me people about that. I really hate selling myself.

The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity.

I'm here today to warn you: I want you to watch out for the adversary. Guard yourself from any spirit of entitlement. Restrain any and all subtle temptation to gain attention or to find ways to promote yourself.

A lot of self-importance goes on in the fashion industry. I'm not like that.

I don't need to pat myself on the back until my arm breaks. I don't need any of that.

There's a certain amount of self-aggrandising with actors, and I'm terribly shy of that.

It's not about ego. Really. If it was ego, I'd be telling you about my awesome... oh, never mind.

I detest self-regard. If my work has taught me anything, it is that self-aggrandisement is completely unhistorical.

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.

I might have faults but I'm not a big head.

I can’t talk about myself that way. Whatever I did before was just in line with my work. I can’t be saying I, I, I all the time.

Although the Senate is much given to admiring in its members a superiority less obvious or quite invisible to outsiders, one Senator seldom proclaims his own inferiority to another, and still more seldom likes to be told of it.