Johann Georg Zimmermann Quotes

What makes me mad is arrogance, pretension, putting on airs.

The thing I hate most is false modesty. The artists who are, like, 'Oh, you know, I'm really not that good. Oh, I can't believe I'm here.' I find it vaguely sinister, even.

False modesty can be worse than arrogance.

What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.

You aren't that big a hot shot that we'd build this for you.

Pedants, who have the least knowledge to be proud of, are impelled most by vanity.

A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first of profession.

The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.

Snobs talk as if they had begotten their own ancestors.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

In the fallen there is danger of pride and vainglory, since they prefer their own judgment to the judgment of everyone else, usurping what is not their own by setting themselves up as judges in their own cause when the rightful judge is their superior.

I don't like intellectuals, or, at least, people who call themselves that way, because I am under the impression that there is always something condescending in their demeanour, and I don't like condescending people.

Mastery passes often for egotism.

There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it, and the rest of us.

Some nights, I was so good that I could have become an egotist.

I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.

One may be humble out of pride.

My family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering.

Ah, beware of snobbery; it is the unwelcome recognition of one's own past failings.

Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves.

It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.

Even a cock crows over his own dunghill.

Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.