Pride

Shame is Pride's cloak.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

[D]on't be ashamed to show your colors, and to own them.
~ William Wells Brown, My Southern Home: or, The South and Its People (1880).

So they, who climb to wealth, forget
The friends in darker fortunes tried.
I copied them -- but I regret
That I should ape the ways of pride.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1821). The Yellow Violet

The proud are ever most provoked by pride.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Conversation

Gentlemen, start your egos.
~ Billy Crystal, Hosting the 76th Annual Academy Awards, Los Angeles CA (29 February 2004).

All people ask for is a chance to work with pride.
~ W. Edwards Deming

I believe in pride of race and lineage and self; in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves; in pride of lineage so great as to despise no man's father; in pride of race so chivalrous as neither to offer bastardy to the weak nor beg wedlock of the strong.
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois, in The Independent, Volume 57 (6 October 1904).

I pride myself on my success in doing not the things I like to do, but the things I don't like to do.
~ William Maxwell Evarts, quoted in The Education of Henry Adams (1918). Chapter II: Boston (1848-1854)

I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, The Mikado (1885 opera).

[C]old selfish pride is their sovereign passion.
~ William Hayley, The Happy Prescription; or, The Lady Relieved From Her Lovers (1785). Act II, scene i

A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

If any one is vain or proud, it is from folly or ignorance.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-talk; Or, Original Essays, Volume II (1825 edition). On The Conduct Of Life; or, Advice to a School-Boy (1822 essay)

Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Plain Speaker, Volume II (1826). Essay IX. On Novelty and Familiarity

The truly proud man knows neither superiors nor inferiors. The first he does not admit of; the last he does not concern himself about.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Dignity does not float down from heaven; it cannot be purchased nor manufactured. It is a reward reserved for those who labor with diligence.
~ Bill Hybels

It is pride which most prevents us from keeping our minds open and teachable for the reception of new truths.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, from Outspoken Essays, Second Series (1922). The State, Visible and Invisible: Religion and the State

From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud --
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
~ William Knox, from Songs of Israel (1824). Mortality

Pride must die in you or nothing of heaven can live in you.
~ William Law, The Spirit of Prayer, Part II (1750).

[Y]ou can have no greater sign of a more confirmed pride, than when you think you are humble enough.
~ William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728). Chapter XV

[C]onscious pride Strives on each face the heart-felt doubt to hide.
~ William Julius Mickle, Translation of Luis de Camoens, The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery Of India (1776). Book IV

He who does not need to lie is proud of not being a liar.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Our vanity is most difficult to wound just when our pride has been wounded.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1885-86).

To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Expeditions of an Untimely Man

Vanity is the polite mask of pride.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

I was born to be big. ... And I ain't disappointing nobody.
~ William ("The Refrigerator") Perry, in Sports Illustrated magazine (4 November 1985). Monster Of The Midway

I am a Cherokee and it's the proudest little possession I ever hope to have.
~ Will Rogers

My father was one-eighth Cherokee indian and my mother was quarter-blood Cherokee. I never got far enough in arithmetic to figure out how much injun that made me, but there's nothing of which I am more proud than my Cherokee blood.
~ Will Rogers

I think it's time that all of us took a little pride in our country.
~ William P. Rogers, Speech on the return of the first POWs from Vietnam (14 February 1973).

"Celtic Pride" is a real concept, a culture, and a practice rather than an idea. We lived it and breathed it. But we were each responsible for it. It began with a collective determination never to embarrass ourselves.
~ William Felton (Bill) Russell, Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership from the Twentieth Century's Greatest Winner (May 2001). Introduction: Eleven Rings, Eleven Lessons in Winning

Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene vi

All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act II, scene i

[H]e stalks up and down like a peacock, -- a stride and a stand.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act III, scene iii

He that is proud eats up himself; pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act II, scene iii

Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!
~ William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens. Act I, scene ii

I will instruct my sorrows to be proud;
For grief is proud, and makes his owner stoop.
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act III, scene i

Man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority
Most ignorant of what he's most assured.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act II, scene ii

My pride fell with my fortunes.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act I, scene ii

Pride went before, ambition follows him.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II

I am less proud to hear you tell my worth
Than you much willing to be counted wise
In spending your wit in the praise of mine.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act II, scene i

Who is it that says most, which can say more,
Than this rich praise, that you alone are you.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 84

In my proudest moments, I think I had a real hand in the creative force of making "Star Trek." But most of the time, I don't think about it.
~ William Shatner, The Associated Press (15 November 2001). Shatner at 70 Is Busier Than Ever

A person is something taller by holding up his head.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Of Men and Manners

How humble, and how complaisant
Is the proud man reduc'd to want!
With what a silly, hanging face
He bears his unforeseen disgrace!
~ William Somervile, from Occasional Poems, Translations, Fables, Tales, Etc. (1727). Fable XIV. The Fortune-Hunter, Canto II

Put your right hand out, give a firm handshake
Talk to me about that one big break
Spread your ear pollution both far and wide.
~ Billy Squier, in Don't Say No (1981 album). The Stroke

If there is something to gain and nothing to lose by asking, by all means ask!
~ William (W.) Clement Stone

Of all passions, none so soon and so often turns the brain, as pride.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, in The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart., Vol. I (1720). Miscellanea, Part III. Heads, Designed for an Essay on Conversation

Sometimes it is hard to say where honest pride ends and hypocrisy begins.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Adventures of Philip (1862). Chapter IV. A Genteel Family

What's built upon Esteem, can ne'er decay.
~ William Walsh, from Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant (1692).

Never hurt the proud,
For not every pride
Is so firm in power
That it can deride
Even its own wound.
~ Marguerite Wilkinson, from Citadels (1926). Never Hurt The Proud

The two things I'm proudest of in my life, is that I became a Marine pilot and that I became a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame.
~ Theodore Samuel ("Ted") Williams, Interview in National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Yearbook (2000 edition). Ted Williams: In his own words

Guilt is really the reverse side of the coin of pride. Guilt aims at self-destruction, and pride aims at the destruction of others.
~ Bill Wilson, AA Grapevine: The International Journal of Alcoholics Anonymous (June 1961). Humility for Today

Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won't let show.
~ Bill Withers, in Still Bill (1972 album). Lean On Me

Art thou a man of gallant pride,
A Soldier, and no mail of chaff?
Welcome! -- but lay thy sword aside,
And lean upon a Peasant's staff.
~ William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems, Vol. 2 (1800). The Poet's Epitaph

Stranger! henceforth be warned; and know, that pride,
Howe'er disguised in its own majesty,
Is littleness; that he, who feels contempt
For any living thing, hath faculties
Which he has never used; that thought with him
Is in its infancy.
~ William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads (1798). Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree

What is pride? -- a whizzing rocket
That would emulate a star.
~ William Wordsworth, from The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, Vol. IV (1820). Inscriptions. Inscriptions Supposed to be Found in and near a Hermit's Cell