Self-Deprecating Sayings

377 sayings found from 377 authors

You come here to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. If we told you more, you would have paid no attention. That is all I have to say.

— Sitting Bull Approx. 1870s-1880s
Self-Deprecating

I can offer you neither honours nor wages; I offer you hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Anyone who loves his country, follow me.

— Garibaldi 1849 (Defense of the Roman Republic)
Self-Deprecating

I have only one ambition left: I should like to have a good epitaph.

— Bismarck Late 19th century (approximate)
Self-Deprecating

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

— Socrates c. 399 BCE (approximate)
Self-Deprecating

All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.

— Friedrich Nietzsche Late 19th Century (approximate)
Self-Deprecating

If anything is certain, it is that I myself am not a Marxist.

— Karl Marx 1882
Self-Deprecating

I was made for another planet altogether. I mistook the way.

— Simone de Beauvoir Undated, but appears in various quote compilations and is often attributed to her introspective writings.
Self-Deprecating

I don't care whether animals are capable of thinking; all I care about is that they are capable of suffering!

— Jeremy Bentham 1789
Self-Deprecating

There are too many idiots in this world. And having said it, I have the burden of proving it.

— Frantz Fanon 1952-1961 (approximate, during his active writing period)
Self-Deprecating

I don't remember when exactly I read my first comic book, but I do remember exactly how liberated and subversive I felt as a result.

— Edward Said 1999
Self-Deprecating

I became the stage for the great argument between Nietzsche and Rousseau. I was the extra ready to take on all the roles.

— Jacques Derrida 1970s-1990s (approximate)
Self-Deprecating

My big fear is that if I act the way I am, people will notice that there is nothing to see. So I have to be active all the time, covering up.

— Slavoj Zizek 2000s-2010s (approximate)
Self-Deprecating

I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.'

— Cornel West Unknown, but widely attributed.
Self-Deprecating

Someone who says 'I am busy' is either declaring incompetence (and lack of control of his life) or trying to get rid of you.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb circa 2010
Self-Deprecating

I went in search of a bad person; I found none as I, seeing myself, found me the worst.

— Kabir 15th Century
Self-Deprecating

You are not I. How do you know I don't know the happiness of fish?

— Zhuangzi 4th Century BCE
Self-Deprecating

I am sick when I do look on thee.

— William Shakespeare c. 1595-1596
Self-Deprecating

I would rather have my ignorance than another man's knowledge, because I have so much more of it.

— Mark Twain Unspecified
Self-Deprecating

I intend to put up with nothing that I can put down.

— Edgar Allan Poe 1844-1849
Self-Deprecating

I have a writing room. Actually, it's a one-room studio. There's even a couch. And if you think that's pretentious, go fuck yourself.

— Stephen King 2019
Self-Deprecating
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