“Among all the creatures in which we take pleasure and toward which our nature seems to be attracted the most, self undoubtedly holds the first place. There is no one, no matter how limited in talents and good qualities, who does not love his own excellence, and who does not try, in one way or another, to make it shine forth to himself and to others. It is for this reason that we often spontaneously exaggerate our own worth, and as a result are demanding and pretentious. This makes us haughty and arrogant, as well as difficult in our relations with others. Humility is the virtue which keeps within just limits the love of one’s own excellence. Whereas self-esteem often induces us to make ourselves too evident, or to occupy a place which a higher than our due, humility keep us in our own place. Humility is truth: it tends to establish in truth both our intellect – by making us know ourselves as we really are – and our life, by inclining us to take, in relation to God and to men, our proper place and no other.” Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.
A story is told that when asked which virtues were needed to grow in holiness, St. Augustine answered, “There are three, humility, humility and humility.”