What's the difference between arrogance and modesty?

Arrogance


Definition:

  • (n.) The act or habit of arrogating, or making undue claims in an overbearing manner; that species of pride which consists in exorbitant claims of rank, dignity, estimation, or power, or which exalts the worth or importance of the person to an undue degree; proud contempt of others; lordliness; haughtiness; self-assumption; presumption.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In a poll before the debate, 48% predicted that Merkel, who will become Europe's longest serving leader if re-elected on 22 September, would emerge as the winner of the US-style debate, while 26% favoured Steinbruck, a former finance minister who is known for his quick-wit and rhetorical skills, but sometimes comes across as arrogant.
  • (2) Arrogant, narcissistic, egotistical, brilliant – all of that I can handle in Paul,” Levinson writes.
  • (3) There was a real risk of "judges arrogating to themselves greater power than they have at the moment."
  • (4) It’s the failure of an over-centralised prime ministerial office, too small to have real intellectual and research heft yet arrogant enough to overrule FCO advisers.
  • (5) On Wednesday she declared that if Sir Gideon had sent Chloe Smith unprotected on to Newsnight, then he was "cowardly as well as arrogant".
  • (6) Extensive research among the Afghan National Army – 68 focus groups – and US military personnel alike concluded: "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally views the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals.
  • (7) Standing on stage in Korea, visibly nervous in front of the crowd, he said that “I will not be too comfortable in approaching the challenge, and I will not be too arrogant in my preparation.” But, he added, the company had had only five months to improve the system since its game against Fan Hui.
  • (8) It considers arrogance a key component in its make-up, and trusts the single-minded, as long as they conform to specific local desires.
  • (9) He has that belief and football arrogance and the best teams have that.” Balotelli claimed he made a mistake in returning to Italy from Manchester City in January 2013 and that his experience would help the young players in Rodgers’ team.
  • (10) Israel’s leader epitomizes what Senator J William Fulbright once called “the arrogance of power”.
  • (11) No sufferer of fools, he also found it difficult to put up with what he felt to be the arrogance of some colleagues.
  • (12) You have a secret hope but you like to keep it a secret because it sounds so arrogant to say I can win a medal and then don't get one."
  • (13) It was hard to imagine a more arrogant and self-serving statement, as the people of Tunisia were fighting for their freedom.
  • (14) For many of us, the attitude of the European commission, the ECB, certain European leaders, has been arrogant, dismissive and even anti-democratic,” he said.
  • (15) "The American people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that I believe are arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way," he said.
  • (16) Without trying to sound arrogant, hopefully the awards will be an opportunity to talk to our contemporaries as peers, not just a crappy prison project, and say, 'This is what you can do'."
  • (17) Their policy decisions, including increases in the cost of living, the sale of TIO [Territory Insurance Office], savage cuts to health and education and general arrogance has burned public trust in their integrity and competence,” said Snowdon, who called the party “a joke” and said nobody could take the territory seriously now.
  • (18) It was the arrogance of power, written in huge letters.
  • (19) There was also a certain arrogance that comes from being part of an elite that “gets the numbers”, and an entrenched hierarchy meant that predictions weren’t properly scrutinised.
  • (20) To express guarded optimism about the Greek deal is not to condone the provocative arrogance of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis or the pointless vindictiveness of the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble .

Modesty


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being modest; that lowly temper which accompanies a moderate estimate of one's own worth and importance; absence of self-assertion, arrogance, and presumption; humility respecting one's own merit.
  • (n.) Natural delicacy or shame regarding personal charms and the sexual relation; purity of thought and manners; due regard for propriety in speech or action.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "It is not a likeable work," ran one unfavourable review, "containing little humour or tenderness or modesty.
  • (2) Clearly recovered from her attack of British modesty, she jumps out of an SUV in denim shorts and a crop top, her voice almost completely lost.
  • (3) Against all the odds, he almost single-handedly rescued hundreds of children, mostly Jewish, from the Nazis – an enduring example of the difference that good people can make even in the darkest of times.” “Because of his modesty, this astonishing contribution only came to light many years later.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sir Nicholas Winton meeting some of the (now grown up) children he helped save.
  • (4) This was a galaxy-spanning utopia whose name was chosen for its self-deprecating modesty, rather than something grandiose like the Federation or the Empire.
  • (5) Principal component analysis was used to identify five clothing dimensions (experimentation, self-enhancement, conformity, economics and practicality, and modesty), two body satisfaction dimensions (face and extremities, midsection and weight), and two eating dimensions (drive for thinness and binging).
  • (6) Whatever veiled women say about modesty, tradition or feeling closer to God, we in the £5-aspirant group worry that they are oppressed: that it is about being hidden and silenced.
  • (7) "The gentleman, opening the circular, hinged portcullis on the front of his helmet, offered his services; and perceiving that her modesty declined what her situation rendered necessary, took her up in his arms without further delay and carried her down the hill."
  • (8) And when you see Portman naked and leaning in profile on a dresser, she's posed deliberately, artfully, bony elbows protecting her modesty.
  • (9) Their letter, written in terms of false modesty, almost as if their aim was to protect Mr Brown, not destroy him, lacked any ideological substance.
  • (10) Interviews were conducted with 85 Puerto-Rican-born women encountered in one urban community in the United States concerning their obstetrical and gynecological preventive health participation, modesty pattern, and feelings of being male dominated.
  • (11) Mention of it brings on another attack of modesty – "No matter how bad a music video, the song remains intact" – but his videos are weird and intriguing.
  • (12) New York Times editors don't do modesty, Abramson no exception.
  • (13) His modesty showed when he declined an invitation to attend the ceremonies marking the 1994 signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty.
  • (14) Those sentiments had been echoed in the seemingly very different context of Qom, the centre of Shia religious studies, where most women move about in full-length black cloaks – the chadors that are the ultimate expression of Shia modesty.
  • (15) But the modesty isn’t the problem, it’s the listening.
  • (16) It received 80,000 responses and delivered a landmark 630-page report in 29 days, calling for the law concerning sexual violence to be modernised, removing terms such as “intent to outrage her modesty”.
  • (17) When I take Viagra, it stands up.” B: “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.” On modesty A: “I do not have brilliance, wit or smartness.
  • (18) In a small side room at the Guardian, with Al Pacino glowering from a poster above us, James Corden is performing a masterclass in modesty.
  • (19) Prestige was regained by workers, who originally were thought to have lost their honor by violating the cultural patterns of seclusion and modesty.
  • (20) We conjecture that for highly religious women modernising factors raise the risk and temptation in women’s environments that imperil their reputation for modesty: veiling would then be a strategic response, a form either of commitment to prevent the breach of religious norms or of signalling women’s piety to their communities.