Stephen Jay Gould Quotes

If thou seest anything in thyself which may make thee proud, look a little further and thou shalt find enough to humble thee; if thou be wise, view the peacock's feathers with his feet, and weigh thy best parts with thy imperfections.

I cannot raise my worth too high; Of what vast consequence am I! "Not of the importance you suppose," Replies a Flea upon his nose; "Be humble, learn thyself to scan; Know, pride was never made for man.

It's always an honor to be ranked high, but whatever is said about you, you take it and then take a realistic look at yourself and who you are.

I've never really spent a lot of time thinking about my individual accomplishments actually.

I never saw movies I was in because my mom told me that would be prideful, being stuck on yourself.

Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.

For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better.

But let us not too hastily triumph in the shame of Sparta, lest we aggravate our own condemnation.

Some smart man once said that on the most exalted throne in the world, we are seated on nothing but our own arse.

To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

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

I have a pretty clear picture of the whole weight of my life, and there are things that I've done that are good, and I'm proud of them. There are things that I'm really not proud of, and that they, you have to look at me with a perspective, and I try really hard to do that, to keep from thinking I'm cool and ever so smart.

I never dwell on what I've personally achieved.

The surest cure for vanity is loneliness.

Their authority over their slaves renders them vain and imperious.

My ego and my vanities have nothing to do with comedy.

Power is a very peculiar thing. It's like the ego. The ego's only there to keep you above water. Once we realize something good about ourselves, we have a tendency to abuse the gift.

Pride is a thing that I have tried to abandon completely. Try as I might, pride still creeps into many of the things I do.

Everybody needs to lower his ego.

If someone was like, 'Describe yourself in one word,' I would never say, 'Handsome.'

People should just get over themselves.

I really don't look at my accomplishments. I really don't think about myself much.