On pride and humility

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The Bible teaches the great importance of humility and has much to say about the folly of pride. God loves the humble man and is an enemy of the proud.

Humble. Free from pride or vanity; modest; meek; unassuming.

Humility. The state or quality of being humble; a modest sense of one’s own worth.

The word “pride” can have two meanings:

Pride. 1. An unduly high opinion of oneself i.e thinking more highly of oneself than one ought to think; Arrogance; Conceit. 2. A proper sense of personal dignity and worth; honorable self-respect.

If we say a person has no pride we mean he doesn’t have a proper sense of personal dignity; that he lacks in self-respect. That is a criticism. A mentally, spiritually healthy person has a proper amount of pride or self-respect.

Pride and humility are really two sides of the same coin. They refer to something that you can have too much of or too little of — something the mentally healthy mind has just the right amount of. If you have too much of it you are proud, arrogant, conceited. If you have too little you are said to lack pride (You may, for example, have engaged in some conduct unworthy of a decent, self-respecting person and be said to lack pride.). The mentally healthy person has a proper sense of his own worth. A person with a proper sense of self worth corresponds to the modest, humble person — a person not inclined toward excessive pride.

Vain. Having or showing an excessively high opinion of one's appearance, abilities, or worth.

Syn. narcissistic, pleased with oneself, self-loving, in love with oneself, self-admiring, self-regarding, self-centered, egotistic, egotistical, egoistic, egocentric, egomaniac, proud, arrogant, boastful, cocky, cocksure, full of oneself, above oneself, self-important, immodest, swaggering, strutting, self-satisfied, self-congratulatory, smug, complacent, supercilious, haughty, snobbish, bigheaded, swollen-headed, too big for one's boots, puffed up, stuck-up, snooty, high and mighty, uppity, uppish, snotty, vainglorious, peacockish, think too highly of oneself, think a lot of oneself

Arrogant. Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.

Syn. haughty, conceited, hubristic, self-important, opinionated, egotistic, full of oneself, superior, overbearing, pompous, high-handed, swaggering, boastful, bumptious, blustering, patronizing, condescending, disdainful, contemptuous, imperious, proud, vain, immodest, lofty, lordly, snobbish, snobby, overweening, supercilious, smug, pretentious, affected, scornful, mocking, sneering, scoffing, hoity-toity, high and mighty, uppity, snooty, stuck-up

Excessive pride is a kind of mental dysfunction. It is an illusion with regard to yourself.

It is my firm belief that high pride and arrogance affect one’s intellectual development in life. They stymie intellectual development. We develop intellectually over the years by humbly observing life and learning from others. The intellectually mature, wise person is a humble person. Arrogance distorts judgment and vision. The rational, sensible, understanding mind is a humble mind.

The proud, arrogant person doesn’t like to be questioned or doubted. He wants to be treated as superior and is offended if he isn’t. He tends to be very thin skinned and quick to take offense. He doesn’t want to lower himself and deal with other people on an equal basis. A humble person is happy to deal with others on an equal basis, learn from other people, has no problem in asking for help from others. He knows that he can learn from everyone in some way.

I note that pride may reveal itself in different ways. It may be revealed in pompousness, ostentatiousness, pretentiousness. It may be revealed in boastfulness. It may be revealed in overbearing, tyrannical behavior. However, a overbearing person may not be ostentatious, an ostentatious person may not be overbearing, etc.

Personality traits often occur in groups. Arrogance is often found alongside other negative personality traits. For example traits like argumentativeness, maliciousness, vindictiveness, and selfishness.

Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto

the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

Psa 138:6

The meek will he guide in judgment:

and the meek will he teach his way.

Psa 25:9

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall

delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Psa 37:11

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;

Pride and arrogance and the evil way

And the perverse mouth I hate.

Prov 8:13

When pride comes, then comes shame;

But with the humble is wisdom.

Prov 11:2

By pride comes nothing but strife,

But with the well-advised is wisdom.

Prov 13:10

The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom,

And before honor is humility.

Prov 15:33

The LORD will destroy the house of the proud,

But He will establish the boundary of the widow.

Prov 15:25

Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD;

Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.

Prov 16:5

Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly,

Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Prov 16:19

Pride goes before destruction,

And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Prov 16:18

Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty,

And before honor is humility.

Prov 18:12

By humility and the fear of the LORD

Are riches and honor and life.

Prov 22:4

A man's pride will bring him low,

But the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Prov 29:23

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?

there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Prov 26:12

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth;

a stranger, and not thine own lips.

Prov 27:2

He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife,

But he who trusts in the LORD will be prospered.

Prov 28:25

A man's pride will bring him low,

But the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Prov 29:23

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled,

and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Words of Jesus Luke 14:11

A proud man has many crosses.

A proud heart in a poor breast

Gives its owner little rest.

A proud man is always a foolish man.

Arrogance is the obstruction of wisdom.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment,

and misguide the mind,

What the weak head with strong bias rules,

Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

Pope

Arrogance is a weed that grows mostly on a dunghill.

The street is full of humiliations to the proud.

Emerson

Should you ask me, What is the first thing in religion? I

should reply, The first, second, and third thing therein --

nay, all -- is humility.

Augustine

After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser.

Franklin

Humility is the solid foundation of all the virtues.

Confucius

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the

proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none

but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor

strength, nor reason can prevail.

Quarles

Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil's reach as

humility.

Jonathan Edwards

The richest pearl in the Christian's crown of graces is

humility.

Good

Humility is the eldest born of virtue, and claims the birth-

right at the throne of heaven.

Murphy

Humility is the truest abstinence in the world. It is

abstinence from self-love and self-conceit, from vaunting our

own praise and exploits, from ambition and avarice, the

strongest propensities of our nature, and consequently is the

noblest self-denial.

Delany

Pride is increased by ignorance; those assume the most who know

the least.

Gay

As thou desirest the love of God and man, beware of pride. It

is a tumor in the mind, that breaks and ruins all thine

actions; a worm in thy treasury, that eats and ruins thine

estate. It loves no man, and is beloved of none; it disparages

another's virtues by detraction, and thine own by vainglory. It

is the friend of the flatterer, the mother of envy, the nurse

of fury, the sin of devils, the devil of mankind. It hates

superiors, scorns inferiors, and owns no equal. In short,

till thou hate it, God hates thee.

Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem

and reverence into contempt.

Bolingbroke

Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean

advantages.

Johnson

Pride, as it is compounded of the vanity and ill nature that

dispose men to admire themselves, and contemn other men,

retains its vigor longer than any other vice, and rarely

expires but with life itself. Without the sovereign influence

of God's grace, men very rarely put off all the trappings of

their pride till they who are about them put on their winding-

sheet.

Clarendon

There is a diabolical trio existing in the natural man,

implacable, inextinguishable, co-operative and consentaneous,

pride, envy, and hate; pride that makes us fancy we deserve all

the goods that others possess; envy that some should be admired

while we are overlooked; and hate, because all that is

bestowed on others, diminishes the sum we think due to

ourselves.

Colton

Pride often defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks

esteem and reverence, into contempt.

Bolingbroke

A beggar's rags may cover as much pride as an alderman's gown.

Spurgeon

When pride and presumption walk before, shame and loss follow

very closely.

Louis the Eleventh

The disesteem and contempt of others is inseparable from pride.

It is hardly possible to overvalue ourselves but by

undervaluing our neighbors.

Clarendon

Deep is the sea, and deep is hell, but pride mineth deeper; it

is coiled as a poisonous worm about the foundations of the

soul.

Tupper

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he

gets as much as he deserves.

H. W. Beecher

See

Pride and selfishness

Pride / Humility

On Pride and Humility

In the following I attempt to describe a certain prominent, well known, public figure that I have in mind:

● proud, arrogant, haughty, egotistical

● vain, pompous, ostentatious, pretentious, flamboyant, theatrical, affected

● overweening, domineering, dictatorial

● willful, self-willed, stubborn, pigheaded

● selfish

● argumentative

● irritable

● defensive, touchy, thin skinned, quick temper

● abusive, vindictive, vengeful, malicious, rude

● impulsive, rash

● impatient

● undisciplined, unrestrained

● immature

● not thoughtful, not given to reflective thought

● not fair, even minded, and impartial in his thinking; perverted, biased, dishonest, warped thinking

● troublemaker

● unwilling to accept any criticism or responsibility for wrong action; always shifts blame to others; accepts no blame

● always stepping on people’s toes, challenging them, putting them down; always acting superior

● talks too much, doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut; speaks before thinking

● imprudent, short-sighted, thoughtless, rash, foolish

● not inclined towards much reading, not well informed; intellectually underdeveloped

● lacking in depth and understanding

● showy, affected, and irresponsible in speech. Pompous and theatrical in language. Pride and arrogance on high display in his words, his delivery, and his countenance. Boastful.

● Not careful in assertions and statements, not qualifying statements that he makes. Proneness toward exaggeration, overstatement, and pretense. Speaks irresponsibly. Talks when he doesn’t know what he is talking about. States as fact things that can be shown to be false.

● speech exhibits laziness and imprecision of thought. Assertions and statements not well-informed and not well thought out. Not thoughtful, careful and precise in assertion and argument. Ambiguity in language.

● dishonesty in language and argument. Instead of answering his adversaries with facts, figures, and logical argument he responds by belittling them, abusing them, and calling them names.

● makes grandiose assertions and arrogantly expects them to be accepted as true just because he says they are true

Mar 2020