Humility.

It’s one of those things I didn’t really understand the point of when I was younger.

But with age and time I learned how important it was for me to stay sharp, to keep moving forward in life, to be kinder and to not create problems for myself by thinking I was better and smarter than I actually was.

That's what I've gained from that sobering humility. But today I’d like to share not only the impact it has had on my own life but also the best quotes I have found about humility.

The top timeless thoughts about staying humble and not getting lost in pride or arrogance but to stay grounded in humility and reality.

And if you want more motivation to keep your feet on the ground and yourself happy then also have a look at this post about empathy and also this post filled with quotes about inner peace.

Humility Quotes About Life, Happiness and Success

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.”
C. S. Lewis

“Stay hungry, stay young, stay foolish, stay curious, and above all, stay humble because just when you think you got all the answers, is the moment when some bitter twist of fate in the universe will remind you that you very much don't.”
Tom Hiddleston

“Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up.”
Jesse Jackson

“Thank you” is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.”
Alice Walker

“It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
Ernest Hemingway

“Humility is really important because it keeps you fresh and new.”
Steven Tyler

“A great man is always willing to be little.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn – and those are all good things.”
Dick Van Dyke

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
Bill Gates 

“Have more humility. Remember you don't know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life–and maybe even please a few strangers.”
A.L. Kennedy

“Humility will open more doors than arrogance ever will.”
Zig Ziglar

“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.”
Winston S. Churchill

“I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.”
Lao Tzu

“If pain doesn't lead to humility, you have wasted your suffering.”
Katerina Stoykova Klemer

“I always say be humble but be firm. Humility and openness are the key to success without compromising your beliefs.”
George Hickenlooper

“Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.”
Simone Weil

“There are times when wisdom cannot be found in the chambers of parliament or the halls of academia but at the unpretentious setting of the kitchen table.”
E.A. Bucchianeri

“Selflessness is humility. Humility and freedom go hand in hand. Only a humble person can be free.”
Jeff Wilson

“Perhaps wisdom…is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.”
Anthony Bourdain

“To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.”
Ursula K. Le Guin

“The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.”
Charles Caleb Colton

“Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.”
Rick Pitino

“Humility, I have learned, must never be confused with meekness. Humility is being open to the ideas of others.”
Simon Sinek

“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self.”
Charles Spurgeon

“Mastery begins with humility.”
Robin Sharma

“There is a universal respect and even admiration for those who are humble and simple by nature, and who have absolute confidence in all human beings irrespective of their social status.”
Nelson Mandela

“I believe that the first test of a great man is his humility. I don't mean by humility, doubt of his power. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not of them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.”
John Ruskin

“A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.”
James E. Faust

“Humility is attentive patience.”
Simone Weil

“True humility is intelligent self respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be.”
Ralph W. Sockman

“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

“Every person that you meet knows something you don't; learn from them.”
H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning.”
Gza

“Without humility there can be no humanity.”
John Buchan

“The humble listen to their brothers and sisters because they assume they have something to learn. They are open to correction, and they become wiser through it.”
Thomas Dubay

“There is beauty and humility in imperfection.”
Guillermo del Toro

“True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.”
Socrates

“Life is a long lesson in humility.”
J.M. Barrie

“There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.”
Aaron Lauritsen

You may also want to have a look at this post with quotes about regret.

Funny Humility Quotes

“In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.”
Winston Churchill

“The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it.”
Mignon McLaughlin

“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, “He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.”
Epictetus

“Flattery is all right so long as you don’t inhale.”
Adlai Stevenson

“Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.”
Ann Landers

“I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.”
Carl Jung

“A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.”
Albert Einstein

“There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it, and the rest of us.”
Laurence J. Peter

“Just remember, when someone has an accent, it means that he knows one more language than you do.”
Sidney Sheldon

“Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware. The cosmic banana peel is suddenly going to appear underfoot to make sure you don’t take it all too seriously, that you don’t fill up on junk food.”
Anne Lamott

“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
Michel de Montaigne

Quotes About Kindness, Pride and Humility

“Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.”
Thomas Merton

“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”
Alexander Pope

“Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.”
St. Vincent de Paul

“With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings.”
Ezra Taft Benson

“Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else.”
Madeleine L'Engle

“As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on thing and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you.”
C.S. Lewis

“I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.”
Hermann Hesse

“The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don't mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.”
John Ruskin

“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”
Saint Augustine

“A little humility goes a long way.”
Dean Ornish

“There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don't think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, ‘I'm probably no better than you, but I'm certainly your equal.”
Harper Lee

“Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.”
Colin Powell

“Power is dangerous unless you have humility.”
Richard J. Daley

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”
Augustine of Hippo

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
Ernest Hemingway

“It’s important that what thoughts you are feeding into your mind because your thoughts create your belief and experiences. You have positive thoughts and you have negative ones too. Nurture your mind with positive thoughts: kindness, empathy, compassion, peace, love, joy, humility, generosity, etc. The more you feed your mind with positive thoughts, the more you can attract great things into your life.”
Roy T. Bennett

“Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.”
Robert Macfarlane

“It is together that we will be able to save our biodiversity. This is a principle of effectiveness. But it is also a principle of humility; none of us can act alone.”
Albert II, Prince of Monaco

“While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.”
Karl R. Popper

“It is not for me to judge another man's life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone.”
Herman Hesse

“Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.”
Thomas Moore

Want even more? Check out this post with compassion quotes and also this one with quotes on giving.