Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux Quotes

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Many would be wise if they did not think themselves wise.

He who knows himself best esteems himself least.

Don't believe your own publicity. You can't; you'll start thinking that you're better than you are.

I thought I was so much smarter than everybody. And I'm not.

There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake, though all the World sees them to be in downright nonsense.

Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.

The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so.

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom when he can no longer be led by the nose.

Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause believers to affirm. Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, few doubtingly of scepticism.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means that you are very conceited indeed.

A fool who recognises his own ignorance is thereby in fact a wise man, but a fool who considers himself wise - that is what one really calls a fool.

Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.

The minute a man is convinced he is interesting, he isn't.

Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error.

No man is great if he thinks he is.

The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.

Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.

You need ego but mine is not blinding.

Some of the best advice I was ever given was: 'Don't believe your own hype.'

Perhaps I am not as wise as I like to think I am.

If I have learned one thing in life, it is never to take any man's own estimate of himself. He could very well be mistaken.