Rev. E. Anderson
HUMILITY
I READ ABOUT a Britisher named Thomas Hardy, who around the turn of the century became so famous that as a novelist and a poet he could have commanded whatever figure any newspaper would have been willing to pay if he would just submit anything for them to print. But every time he submitted a poem or some literary piece he always included a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the return of his manuscript should it be rejected. He remained humble enough to think that his work could be turned down by an editor who would never be as famous as he.
William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke
THE HUMILITY OF Principal Cairns was phenomenal, so well-known in the educational world. He would never enter a room first. He would always step back and say, “No, here, you go and I’ll follow” though he was so well known and respected by the public.
On one occasion, as he stepped up to climb the steps to go to one of the seats on the platform, the public noticed who he was and immediately burst into applause. Shocked, he turned and looked and stepped back and had the man behind him go ahead. And he applauded the man who had walked up behind him, thinking the applause was for him. That isn’t phony humility; that’s true humility. It never dawned on him that the public would applaud for him.
William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke
I BELIEVE that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own power. But really great people have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in others and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.
John Ruskin, quoted in Lloyd Cory, Quote Unquote
