CURATED COLLECTION

Staying Humble

The wisest people in history were often the first to admit how little they understood.

50 quotes found

“
I am trying to remember, it is a difficult thing to do.

—Jean RhysNovelist

Post-War ERA • Caribbean

“
Silence is something to live with, not to be afraid of. It has its own voice.

—Jhumpa LahiriAuthor

Contemporary ERA • South Asia

“
Trauma is not what happens to you. It's what happens inside you as a result.

—Gabor MatéPhysician & Author

Digital Age ERA • Eastern Europe

“
What is a self, if not a story told in a borrowed tongue?

—Meena AlexanderPoet & Memoirist

Late Modern ERA • South Asia

“
Writing became a way of making sense of life.

—Bessie HeadNovelist

Late Modern ERA • Southern Africa

“
Fear is humanity's oldest and most powerful emotion.

—Rosa MonteroJournalist & Novelist

Digital Age ERA • Southern Europe

“
Language is such that you struggle to exist simultaneously everywhere.

—Claudia RankinePoet & Essayist

Digital Age ERA • Caribbean

“
My poems are a diary, my poetry is a poetry of proper names.

—Marina TsvetaevaPoet

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

“
Whatever the heart knows, it knows only through sorrow.

—Murasaki ShikibuAuthor

Medieval ERA • East Asia

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In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

—Galileo GalileiAstronomer, Physicist & Mathematician

Renaissance ERA • Southern Europe

“
Fear is a mirror; it shows us what we most deeply dread within ourselves.

—Amparo DávilaWriter

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
Journalism is the first draft of history, but love is the first draft of the self.

—Elena PoniatowskaJournalist & Novelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think.

—Malcolm XActivist & Minister

Post-War ERA • North America

“
Even if you dislike a woman, it is still possible to understand her.

—Zhang AilingWriter & Novelist

Early Modern ERA • East Asia

“
I know a few things about love, and one of them is this: love is not a miracle.

—Warsan ShirePoet

Digital Age ERA • East Africa

“
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.

—Carl SaganAstronomer & Author

Post-War ERA • North America

“
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

—Ernest HemingwayNovelist & Journalist

Early Modern ERA • North America

“
To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent.

—Czesław MiłoszPoet, Novelist & Essayist

Post-War ERA • Eastern Europe

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Sometimes, silence is the loudest sound. It speaks volumes of unspoken truths.

—Pham Thi HoaiNovelist & Essayist

Late Modern ERA • Southeast Asia

“
Grief does not change you. It reveals you.

—Bessie HeadNovelist

Post-War ERA • Southern Africa

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