Is the “Humble Pie” so distasteful that many would not even try a bite off it?

Question

What makes humility so difficult to attain?

“Swallow your pride occasionally, it's non-fattening!” —Anonymous
“It is always the secure who are humble.” —G. K. Chesterton
“Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.” —William Safire

Care to share?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I truly am sorry about the thumbs-down. I assure you that they did not come from me. The must be something about this question that someone would be so attentive and kind enough to keep coming back to thumb-down every new answer.

As for myself, I rather agree with Shahbarak; my favorite quote is that of William Safire too. I believe that as human being, it is my nature to err. Sometimes I see these errors, and sometimes I don’t. And this is why I think it is important for me to have a good relationship with those in my life, so that I have people who truly care about me to align me back into the right direction if I were to veer from a solid path. But then I must have a measure of humility in me to be able to see the vantage points of others in viewing myself and thus, to stand corrected. To quietly chew on my piece of the humble pie so that I would be able to see an undistorted image of myself from the mirror handed by others.

I would like to thank all of you for caring to share with us all your thoughts on the question at hand. It was an honor to have met all of you here and I would take all your thoughts to heart for my own future reflections.

Answer 1

The practice of humility is not humiliation. Acceptance of who you are, where your place in the line is, what your strengths & weaknesses are, seeking peace instead of having to always be right, & taking the back seat can be very rewarding. Humility gets a lot of bad press. And you are right, it takes someone very secure in themselves to be truly humble & without guile. When a humble person speaks, if it is really humility, people listen, for they rarely speak just to hear themselves talk. Today many people possess a false humility or think that low self esteem is humility. Putting yourself down is not real humility, it is fully accepting yourself, both assets & warts without any self effacing or denial. A truly humble person is a breath of fresh air in this "it's all about me" society.

Answer 2

I like the quotes. "Humble Pie" was a dish eaten by the poor - a pie with filling of offal or "humbles". I think I lot of so-called humble pie is very much like that - and more a display than a reality. Humility doesn't require subservience or self-abnegation. Humility merely requires an awareness of reality, an encompassing perspective, and a willingness to learn - an absence of what the Greeks called hubris. Anonymous seems to me to be semantically clever but sanctimonious (those who swallow their pride may also swallow the insufferable). Chesterton converted to Catholicism, so that informs his perspective, true as it is - but many who are secure are arrogant. Safire rings truer for me. Self respect is the foundation of respect for all things. It is the motivation of the never-ending search for wisdom. Humility, on the other hand, can lead to inappropriate subservience and deception. Or so it seems to me.

Answer 3

I.
To me, what makes humility so difficult to attain is the fact that humility in and of itself is not something you strive for. Instead it's more a byproduct of your moral code. To state that one is humble is paradoxically a proud act (as opposed to an act of humility) because you no longer defer status but instead claim it.

II.
To me, the essence of humility is this:
1) A pebble (or a boulder) falls only from gravity into a calm lake.
2) Ripples form around where the pebble/boulder entered.
3) You can cause neither fewer nor more ripples to form on the lake than should be rightfully so. When it becomes second nature to NOT focus on the smallness of the pebble or the enormity of the boulder throughout--that is humility.

Answer 4

These quotes are very good. I don't think they apply to false humility, which is like false modesty to me. People who are falsely humble are just playing a passive role in order to manipulate others. That's why I liked your quotes so much. They sketch the true character of humility. It's something to aspire to, something few people really have. Probably it's based on self confidence and real kindness. You don't have to prove you're better than someone else or more dominant. You don't have to prove you're a man or a woman, an adult or worthy of love and consideration - you just are.

Answer 5

Hmm... it depends. If there's millions of gummies, then I just stuff them in my mouth and devour them all, but if I only have, like, ten, then... I don't think you want to hear, but i will anyways. Sometimes I like to lick them up so they're all shiny, then eat them, or suck on them until they're teensy then spit them back up. They're so cute when they're tiny! So shiney, too... when I actually bite them, I either bite off the head or the body, then eat the other part. What I usually do Is take two gummi bears different colors, right? Then I bite off the head of one and the body or the other. Then I put the headless gummi and the bodiless gummy together, and viola! it's a multi flavored gummi bear! And then, of course, I eat it.

Answer 6

Not necessarily. However, it is hard to grasp as our underlying greed is a huge obstacle.

For some humility is merely a useful tool to disguise an otherwise ambitious nature in hopes of deceiving others to achieve their goals. Thus, humble pie can have a rather pleasing aftertaste.

Answer 7

Hi Shahrizat~

Humility isn't something to attain, in my mind. It's something you are when you're free; secure and confident with yourself despite possible comparative measuring sticks. Those concerned with demonstrating how imporant they are; those who want that are bound by emotionally-rooted illusions. The illusion specific to the individual, I suppose. Veils are typically very transparent though and I don't think they really fool anyone but the person with something to disguise.

Love the quotes you've included in your question.

:-)
:-)

Answer 8

"Oh, yes. Take that "Humble Pie" away from me! No way I can take that! It's a disgrace to be thought of as weak! People will laugh at me! It tastes awful! I cannot stomach it!"
You know who's constantly murmuring all these to our ears?-Mr. PRIDE! That huge, tall, altered ego of mine! It's telling me not to yield, not to bow down, not to get intimidated, not to give in. That's Mr. FOOLISH PRIDE!
HUMILITY, like kindness is often mistaken for weakness. It sends a tinge of shame, of defeat which is all wrong! In fact, there's some kind of hidden strength in it; The strength to withstand those piercing remarks hurled against us. It teaches us to unfix our eyes from the glowing conceit in our mirror and look down for a while. It encourages us to step aside and allow the mighty wind to pass by. It persuades us to take a bite of that tasteless pie so we can get nourished within us,..not with sweet icings of praise and adulation, but rather, with simple, uncoated stuffings of selflessness.

Answer 9

Humility is great when you have followers who will still lift you up. Gandhi comes to mind.
Most humble folks are lost in the cacophony where only the loudest are heard. If you are truthful or even deceitful, you have to shout the loudest to be heard.

Answer 10

Everything these days is "Stand up! Dont be afraid to say what you want! Be Independant!"

I say though, sometimes just being humble is the way to go..

Sometimes the best answer is silence..