quotations about arrogance
It's only arrogance if you're wrong.
ANONYMOUS
Arrogance is ever accompanied by folly.
PLATO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Human, All Too Human
Arrogance is a veneer -- a thin covering of excuses hiding deep performance deficiencies.
BOB LEWIS
"The Seven Deadly Sins of Information Systems", InfoWorld, Apr. 20, 1998
Arrogance boasts of itself. Humility does not. Arrogance provides a false sense of identity for its wearer. True humility positively contributes to one's true identity. Arrogance automatically assumes a bogus sense of superior status. Humility helps to put into proper perspective our place and purpose in this world.
JIM VALENTI
letter to the editor, "A Confident Nation, Not An Arrogant One", The Carthage Press, March 14, 2016
When a person struts around with his nose in the air, assumes a know-it-all attitude and bosses everyone around, first you get annoyed -- "Who does this guy think he is??" Then, once you step back a bit you have to laugh don't you? Arrogant people are vain, and vanity is always both hilarious and sad. "He's just an ordinary fella, like all of us, but he thinks he's someone special!"
DWIGHT LONGENECKER
"Arrogance, Ignorance and the Unforgivable Sin", Patheos, April 21, 2015
Arrogance is a by product of flattery, and entitlement the outcome of small success.
TOM CLARK
"Tom's Take: The long and winding road of Justin Trudeau", Global News, March 18, 2016
An individual's arrogance is always in proportion to his lack of self-assurance.
OTTO WEININGER
Sex and Character
Arrogant people habitually overestimated their own abilities and underestimated everyone else's.
DAVID BALDACCI
Absolute Power
There is a wicked and pervading arrogance loose on the earth, like a rabid beast, an overdog. Does it run, does it slouch, does its name have a number? The beast preaches contempt, for that's what arrogance says: that nothing is real but itself, and the bone and blood of another's being are insubstantial as breath.
KELLY CHERRY
The Exiled Heart
Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.
COCO CHANEL
attributed, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own
Arrogance is a great obstruction to wisdom.
BION
attributed, Day's Collacon
The persona that many narcissists present to the world often comes across to others as a "superiority complex." But behind the mask of arrogance is a fragile internal balloon of self-esteem that is never satisfied with being good or even very good--if they are not better than, they are worthless.
SANDY HOTCHKISS
Why Is It Always About You?
Arrogance is a weed which grows upon a dunghill; it is from the rankness of the soil that she has her height and spreadings: witness, clowns, fools, and fellows, who from nothing, are lifted up some few steps on fortune's ladder: where, seeing the glorious representment of honour above them, they are so eager to embrace it, that they strive to leap thither at once, and by over-reaching themselves in the way, they fail of the end, and fall.
OWEN FELLTHAM
Resolves, Divine, Moral and Political
Occasionally I meet a man who bears himself like a noble Roman. He comes of an ancient lineage and he is very proud. Toward the world he takes an attitude of condescension. Of his kind he is a perfect specimen. I enjoy meeting him and hearing him talk. The only drawback is that, in his presence, it is hard not to betray mirth. As a matter of fact, he is a good deal laughed at. If he were not so absorbed in himself, his feelings would be hurt. Incidentally, however, he might change his manner. To me he is particularly interesting because he represents a survival. Most people of his type have disappeared. In my acquaintance he is the only example. After an encounter with him I always think with pleasure of the burden lifted from the world by the decline of this kind of arrogance.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"The Decline of Arrogance"
How haughtily he cocks his nose, To tell what every schoolboy knows.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The Country Life
At first glance, and from the outside at least, confidence and arrogance seem to be similar. Self-assurance, belief in oneself and their abilities are manifestations of both characters, but that is where the similarities end! Self-confidence evokes the same in others, it is infectious, it spreads and inspires, turning inspiration into great ideas and opportunities. The Confident has an abundance mentality and encourages others by helping them. Arrogance is the opposite, it is posturing, it is fake, it is used to make the Arrogant feel better about themselves by making someone else feel inferior, the smaller they make people feel the bigger they feel. Arrogance is the destroyer of confidence in others.
ANDREW MACK
"Confidence vs. Arrogance (the Confident vs. the Arrogant)", The Good Men Project, February 17, 2016
If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it; at any rate, brag.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
journals, 1866
Arrogance is the capital-stock of misfortune.
PERSIAN PROVERB
Arrogance is an utterly appropriate weapon to use against a hostile world, a world in which arrogance is feared and respected, even if, like mine, it's only feigned.
THOMAS BERNHARD
Extinction