Dr. Jim Surrell, Journal columnist

First, let us define both humility and pride, before we review the characteristics of both of these personality items that we all possess.

Humility is generally defined as a person not having an excessive view and opinion of one’s personal importance. Pride is generally defined as having a personal feeling of deep pleasure and satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements.

Humility — Humility is truly considered to be a very positive human personality characteristic. Following are some famous humility quotes that I truly believe advise all of us of the very positive aspects of us choosing to be humble.

1. There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart. — Saint Augustine

2. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. — C. S. Lewis

3. Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real. — Thomas Merton

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

5. Humility is really important because it keeps you fresh and new. — Steven Tyler

6. Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying. — St. Vincent de Paul

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

8. 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

Pride – Of course, we all have events occur in our life that we should be proud of. However, if we demonstrate our pride to excess, this may turn into bragging and excessively promoting our own self, and most other people will find this to be offensive. Excess pride can therefore become a very negative human personality characteristic. Let us now take a look at some famous quotes about pride.

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

2. Pride deafens us to the advice or warnings of those around us. — John C. Maxwell

3. Essentially, pride is a ‘my will’ rather than “thy will” approach to life. — Ezra Taft Benson

4. Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. — Carl Jung

5. Pride and vanity, the opposites of humility, can destroy our spiritual health as surely as a debilitating disease can destroy our physical health. — Joseph B. Wirthlin

6. Pride is the first step in people, companies, and relationships unraveling. — Jeff Foxworthy

7. Swallow your pride and admit that we all need help at times. — Huston Smith

8. With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings. — Ezra Taft Benson

The bottom line is that we all should avoid excess pride and remain aware of the benefits of personal humility, and this will allow us to show true compassion and sincere friendship to others.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Jim Surrell is the author of “The ABC’s For Success In All We Do” and the “SOS (Stop Only Sugar) Diet” books. Requests for health topics for this column are encouraged. Contact Dr. Surrell by email at sosdietdoc@gmail.com.