PRIDE

See also: Humility; Ministers

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

The Bible, Proverbs 11:2

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

The Bible, Proverbs 16:18 kjv

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.

The Bible, Proverbs 26:12 kjv

Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.

The Bible, Romans 12:16

Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

The Bible, 1 Corinthians 10:12 kjv

Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it.

Author unknown

God’s whole employment is to lift up the humble and to cast down the proud.

Author unknown

Swallowing your pride seldom leads to indigestion.

Author unknown

Pride is what we have. Vanity is what others have.

Author unknown

A man is usually as young as he feels, but seldom as important.

Author unknown

Remember that pride leads to hell, but humility to heaven! God always beats down the proud, and lifts up the humble.

Isaac Ambrose

As pride is the resemblance of the devil and what brought him to ruin, so humility is the resemblance of Christ, which exalted Him to honors.

Isaac Ambrose

Pride can exist only in those who believe that they possess something. The fallen angel and the first man became proud and fell only because they imagined and believed that they possessed something. For neither angel nor man nor anything else has being; only one has it, God.

Angela of Foligno

The demons are aware that the devil fell from heaven through pride, so they attack first those who are advanced in the way, by trying to set them against each other through pride. In this way they attempt to cut us off from God.

Antony of Egypt

Other sins find their vent in the accomplishment of evil deeds, whereas pride lies in wait for good deeds, to destroy them.

Augustine of Hippo

Those who wish to be praised in themselves are proud.

Augustine of Hippo

They think they will be proud if they have anything. It has been made clear to us where God wishes us to be in the depths and where he wishes us to be in the heights. He wishes us to be humble to avoid pride, and he wishes us to be on high to grasp wisdom.

Augustine of Hippo

One of our most heinous and palpable sins is pride. This is a sin that hath too much interest in the best of us, but which is more hateful and inexcusable in us than in other men.

Richard Baxter

Pride is a vice that ill suits those that would lead others in a humble way to heaven. Let us take heed, lest when we have brought others so far, the gates should prove too narrow for ourselves. For God, who thrust out a proud angel, will not tolerate a proud preacher, either. For it is pride that is at the root of all other sins: envy, contention, discontent, and all hindrances that would prevent renewal. Where there is pride, all want to lead and none want to follow or to agree.

Richard Baxter

I see that my chief obstacle to holiness is pride. I will overcome it!

Andrew Beltrami

Pride is tasteless, colorless, and sizeless. Yet it is the hardest thing to swallow.

August B. Black

Pride alienates man from heaven; humility leads to heaven.

Bridget of Sweden

Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.

Emily Brontë

He that is down need fear no fall;

He that is low, no pride.

John Bunyan

The greatest fault is to be conscious of none.

Thomas Carlyle

The core of pride is impatience and its offshoot is the lack of any discernment.

Catherine of Siena

Sisters beware of all pride, vain ambition, envy, greed, and of taking part in the cares and busy ways of the world.

Clare of Assisi

A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself.

John Climacus

Pride is utter poverty of soul disguised as riches, imaginary light where in fact there is darkness.

John Climacus

Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast, and turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No matter how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.

John Climacus

Men can heal lust. Angels can heal malice. God alone can cure pride.

John Climacus

Of all the marvelous works of the Deity, perhaps there is nothing that angels behold with such supreme astonishment as a proud man.

C.C. Colton

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

George Eliot

They that know God will be humble; they that know themselves cannot be proud.

John Flavel

Pride says, “I am the Lord my God, and I shall have no other gods besides me,” and, “I shall love the Lord my Self with all my heart, soul, strength and mind.”

Douglas Groothuis

The charity that hastens to proclaim its good deeds, ceases to be charity, and is only pride and ostentation.

William Hutton

Peter was first given the keys, but then he was allowed to fall into the sin of denying Christ; and so his pride was humbled by his fall.

John of Carpathos

A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute.

C.S. Lewis

Pride always means enmity – it is enmity.

C.S. Lewis

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

C.S. Lewis

Haughtiness towards men is rebellion to God.

Moses Maimonides

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.

Thomas Merton

God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.

Dwight L. Moody

The gospel insists that what stands between humans and God is pride – the stubborn refusal to derive our worth from God’s love alone.

Peter C. Moore

Pride becomes the root of our rage against a God who condescends to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Peter C. Moore

Pride, or the loss of humility, is the root of every sin and evil.

Andrew Murray

I pray God to keep me from being proud.

Samuel Pepys

Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak.

John Piper

Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace.

Samuel Rutherford

The proud man counts his newspaper clippings – the humble man his blessings.

Fulton J. Sheen

Pride is a stab at Deity; it is an attack upon the undivided glory of God.

C.H. Spurgeon

As long as a man’s soul is lifted up with pride, he will never truly know anything about faith, and never come to live by faith.

C.H. Spurgeon

Oh! man, hate pride, flee from it, abhor it, do not let it dwell with you!

C.H. Spurgeon

Pride may be set down as “the sin” of human nature.

C.H. Spurgeon

Pride is the shirt of the soul, put on first and put off last.

George Swinnock

Pride deprives us of God’s help, making us over-reliant on ourselves and arrogant towards other people.

Thalassios

Learn to break your own will. Be zealous against yourself ! Allow no pride to dwell in you.

Thomas à Kempis