108 Arrogance Quotes To Reflect

In a world where confidence often teeters on the edge of arrogance, understanding the nuances between the two can be enlightening. To ponder on the essence of pride and its potential pitfalls, we've gathered a curated collection of the top 108 arrogance quotes. Each quote serves as a reflection point, offering insights into the human psyche and its relationship with ego. Join us as we explore these thought-provoking words that challenge and inspire us to look within and beyond our own self-importance.

1. “Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.” - Virginia Woolf

2. “I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim—so modestly and so humbly—to possess. It is time to withdraw our 'respect' from such fantastic claims, all of them aimed at the exertion of power over other humans in the real and material world.” - Christopher Hitchens

3. “He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” - George Bernard Shaw

4. “Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

5. “You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.” - George Clooney

6. “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."[Preface to Brissot's Address to His Constituents (1794)]” - Edmund Burke

7. “Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is self-discipline and self-knowledge. It's the sure-footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life. ” - Ann Landers

8. “I don't know how many of you have ever met Dijkstra, but you probably know that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras.” - Alan Kay

9. “You'll get everything society can give a man. You'll keep all the money. You'll take any fame or honor anyone might want to grant. You'll accept such gratitude as the tenants might feel. And I - I'll take what nobody can give a man, except himself. I will have built Cortlandt. - Howard Roark” - Ayn Rand

10. “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” - Mark Twain

11. “How can one absolve intelligent men for engaging in arrogant and demented folly?” - C R Strahan

12. “A little arrogance (or even a lot) isn't such a bad thing, although your mother undoubtedly told you different. Mine did. "Pride goeth before a fall, Stephen", she said... and then I found out - right around the age that is 19 x 2 - that eventually you fall down, anyway.” - Stephen King

13. “I'm not a snob. Ask anybody. Well, anybody who matters.” - Simon Le Bon

14. “Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.” - Emma Goldman

15. “Arrogance is blind to the stumbling block.” - Toba Beta

16. “No doubt it is true that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repented than over all the saints who consistently remain holy, and the rare, sudden gentlenesses of arrogant people have infinitely more effect than the continual gentleness of gentle people. Arrogance turned gentle melts the heart.” - Booth Tarkington

17. “It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.” - Anatole France

18. “There is a wicked and pervading arrogance loose on the earth, like a rabid beast, an overdog. Does it run, does it slouch, does its name have a number? The beast preaches contempt, for that's what arrogance says: that nothing is real but itself, and the bone and blood of another's being are insubstantial as breath.” - Kelly Cherry

19. “Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.” - Coco Chanel

20. “Women scheme when they are weak, they lie out of fear. Men scheme when they are strong, they lie out of arrogance.” - Julian Barnes

21. “... It's the rareGod who needs less stroking that a rockStar or poetician ...” - Alice Fulton

22. “Full moon is falling through the sky.Cranes fly through clouds.Wolves howl. I cannot find restBecause I am powerlessTo amend a broken world.Sima Zian added, "I love the man who wrote that, I told you before, but there is so much burden in Chan Du. Duty, assuming all tasks, can betray arrogance. The idea we can know what must be done, and do it properly. We cannot know the future, my friend. It claims so much to imagine we can. And the world is not broken any more than it always, always is.” - Guy Gavriel Kay

23. “However my mother had once said, ‘When you go to art school, you’ll find everybody sitting around practicing how to do their signature'; and sure enough, there they were, some of them doing just that.” - Richard Williams

24. “Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see -egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be read to fight the enemy you can see.” - Al-Ghazzali

25. “Early in my career...I had to choose between an honest arrogance and a hypercritical humility... I deliberately choose an honest arrogance, and I've never been sorry.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

26. “Just because you're sober, don't think you're a good driver, Cookie.” - John Irving

27. “In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.” - William Hazlitt

28. “I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me.” - Christopher Hitchens

29. “There were long stretches of DNA in between genes that didn't seem to be doing very much; some even referred to these as "junk DNA," though a certain amount of hubris was required for anyone to call any part of the genome "junk," given our level of ignorance.” - Francis S. Collins

30. “Smartass Disciple: Why do arrogant people like to say complex words ?Master of Stupidity: Ask them straight! You'll get a simple scary version.” - Toba Beta

31. “I can be an arrogant people If I have to, or when the situation demands me to act so.It is one way for me to make arrogance useful.So if I know not people well, I don't judge them.” - Toba Beta

32. “Your arrogance doesn't cheapen me.” - Toba Beta

33. “You do not know me for sure, yet you feel yourself better than me.But if you ever deliberately provoke me, in a way trying to hurt me, I'm so worried that you will die, or injured with heart full of revenge.The kind of revenge which you will never be able to fully retaliate, a revenge that will only add to next innocent victims..in between you and me.” - Toba Beta

34. “If you feel deserve to judge the arrogant,it's a sign that you're so far of humbleness.” - Toba Beta

35. “Be careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility! Humility has nothing to do with the insecure and inadequate! Just like arrogance has nothing to do with greatness!” - C. JoyBell C.

36. “Arrogance is a creature. It does not have senses.It has only a sharp tongue and the pointing finger.” - Toba Beta

37. “Smartass Disciple: Master, we should not spend our time to low life like them.Master of Stupidity: If I don’t, then how should I lead men like you to be wiser?” - Toba Beta

38. “I once got lost in a dark woods with no supplies.Struggling to deal with nature, beasts and storms,that was time when I lost my arrogance as human.” - Toba Beta

39. “You'll need to do a better job, Annabelle. No more dates like the first one tonight.""Agreed. And no more making me sit through your Power Matches introductions, either. As you so wisely pointed out, helping Portia Powers isn't in my best interests.""Then why are you still trying to talk me into seeing Melanie again?""Hunger makes me weird.""You got rid of the last one in fourteen minutes. Well done. I'm rewarding you by letting you sit in on all the introductions from now on."She nearly choked on an ice cube. "What are you talking about?""Exactly what I said.” - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

40. “He grinned, and right then it occurred to him that he hadn't enjoyed himself so much with a woman in a very long time. If Annabelle Granger were a few inches taller, a hell of a lot more sophisticated, better organized, less bossy, and more inclined to worship at his feet, she'd have made a perfect wife.” - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

41. “Underestimate is the sign of getting fucked up.” - Toba Beta

42. “Human looks sure on face, while the earth lost in space.” - Toba Beta

43. “The map? I will first make it.” - Patrick White

44. “The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the gentle reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass. If the case be otherwise, I beg his pardon and extend to him the cordial hand of fellowship and call him brother. I shall always delight to meet an ass after my own heart when I have finished my travels.” - Mark Twain

45. “Pride is the mother of arrogance.” - Toba Beta

46. “Arrogant people beat each other.” - Toba Beta

47. “Kindness is strength. Good-nature is often mistaken for virtue, and good health sometimes passes for genius. Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, every one should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm. Intelligence is not the foundation of arrogance. Insolence is not logic. Epithets are the arguments of malice.” - Robert Green Ingersoll

48. “When I saw snooty guy, I missed my childhood.” - Toba Beta

49. “A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.” - George Eliot

50. “But self-abasement is just inverted egoism. Anyone who acts with genuine humility will be as far from humiliation as from arrogance.” - Stephen Mitchell

51. “Harshaw had the arrogant humility of the man who has learned so much that he is aware of his own ignorance and he saw no point in 'measurements' when he did not know what he was measuring.” - Robert A. Heinlein

52. “It's up to the artist to use language that can be understood, not hide it in some private code. Most of these jokers don't even want to use language you and I know or can learn . . . they would rather sneer at us and be smug, because we 'fail' to see what they are driving at. If indeed they are driving at anything--obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence.” - Robert A. Heinlein

53. “Problem with an old friend who is too busy: he always perceives you as if never changed.” - Toba Beta

54. “Arrogance is perhaps the most socially acceptable form of sin in the church today. In this culture of abundance, one of the only ways Satan can keep Christians neutralized is to wrap us up in pride. Conceit slips in like drafts of cold air in the winter. We don't see it, but outsiders can sense it.” - David Kinnaman

55. “Wenn ich den Eindruck hätte, dass in dem, was Sie da sagen, auch nur ein Körnchen Vernunft steckt, würde ich mir vielleicht die Mühe machen, mich auf eine solche Diskussion einzulassen. Aber wie die Dinge liegen, werde ich einfach an etwas anderes denken, während Sie weiter vor sich hin plappern.” - Kazuo Ishiguro

56. “I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator — that's beyond my conceit. I therefore have no choice but to find something suspect even in the humblest believer. Even the most humane and compassionate of the monotheisms and polytheisms are complicit in this quiet and irrational authoritarianism: they proclaim us, in Fulke Greville's unforgettable line, "Created sick — Commanded to be well." And there are totalitarian insinuations to back this up if its appeal should fail. Christians, for example, declare me redeemed by a human sacrifice that occurred thousands of years before I was born. I didn't ask for it, and would willingly have foregone it, but there it is: I'm claimed and saved whether I wish it or not. And if I refuse the unsolicited gift? Well, there are still some vague mutterings about an eternity of torment for my ingratitude. That is somewhat worse than a Big Brother state, because there could be no hope of its eventually passing away.” - Christopher Hitchens

57. “Without humor, we’d all be what we’re laughing at. Without arrogance, we’d be humiliated to admit we already are.” - Bauvard

58. “We Lannisters do have a certain pride," said Tyrion Lannister.“Pride?” Catelyn snapped. His mocking tone and easy manner made her angry. “Arrogance, some might call it. Arrogance and avarice and lust for power.”“My brother is undoubtedly arrogant,” Tyrion Lannister replied. “My father is the soul of avarice, and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath. I, however, am innocent as a little lamb. Shall I bleat for you?” He grinned.” - George R.R. Martin

59. “a grin that wasn't natural, and that combined in a strange way affection and arrogance, the arrogance of the idealist who doesn't realize how easily he can be fooled.” - Frank O'Connor

60. “Man of an hard heart! Hear me, Proud, Stern, and Cruel! You could have saved me; you could have restored me to happiness and virtue, but would not! You are the destroyer of my Soul; You are my Murderer, and on you fall the curse of my death and my unborn Infant’s! Insolent in your yet-unshaken virtue, you disdained the prayers of a Penitent; But God will show mercy, though you show none. And where is the merit of your boasted virtue? What temptations have you vanquished? Coward! you have fled from it, not opposed seduction. But the day of Trial will arrive! Oh! then when you yield to impetuous passions! when you feel that Man is weak, and born to err; When shuddering you look back upon your crimes, and solicit with terror the mercy of your God, Oh! in that fearful moment think upon me! Think upon your Cruelty! Think upon Agnes, and despair of pardon!” - Matthew Gregory Lewis

61. “I am incapable of mediocrity.” - Serge Gainsbourg

62. “A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Blurry concepts influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance.” - Criss Jami

63. “Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water it runs between his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call out, 'See, he is a wise man!' Is it not so?” - H. Rider Haggard

64. “The Duke has decreed that the Castle is not cold." The gentleman's lips are almost blue from this lack of cold. "And the Duke is right and correct in this as in all things."...some very beautiful tapestries line the walls, but many of them are also full of holes. Perhaps the Duke has decreed that there are no moths, either.” - Christopher Peter Grey

65. “People who worship only themselves get a slick, polished look -- like monuments. Too bad they had to go so soon.” - Vanna Bonta

66. “Forgive me, madam," he said lightly, amused, "but waiting to make love to you again is straining my nerves." She scoffed but she was quite shaken; he could see it in her expression, in the way she nervously toyed with the buttons on her pelisse."How awfully presumptuous of you to think I'd let you.""You will," he insisted soothingly.She gaped at him."Please continue," he urged. "I'm aching to hear the rest.""You're as arrogant as usual.""You missed it, though.""I absolutely did not," she asserted.He grinned. "You missed my arrogance almost as much as I missed your impudence, little one.""That's absurd.""I love you, Caroline," he softly, quickly replied, catching her off guard with such tenderness. "Move on before I decide I'm finished with this conversation, rip off your clothes, and show you how much.” - Adele Ashworth

67. “Oh, Gods."His eyes shone with want and predatory satisfaction. "The name's William. It's a common mistake.” - Ilona Andrews

68. “You are arrogant," says the cat, "and you are in love. Either one of these things alone might be overcome, but together, they make for a stubborn combination.” - Elora Bishop

69. “Do you wish to speak in Provençal, French, or Latin? They are all I can manage, I'm afraid.""Any will do," the rabbi replied in Provençal."Splendid. Latin it is," said Pope Clement.” - Iain Pears

70. “Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.” - Robert MacFarlane

71. “The arrogance and brutality of empire are not repealed when they temporarily get deployed in a just cause.” - Michael Kazin

72. “For a more than miffed Midnight, fate was for emperors, fools and soppy lovers: - fate was the self-important egotism of those doing well, the sheer unbearable arrogance of the living and loved.” - Tom Conrad

73. “English does not distinguish between arrogant-up (irreverence toward the temporarily powerful) and arrogant-down (directed at the small guy).” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

74. “To write a poem you must have a streak of arrogance-- not in real life I hope. In real life try to be nice. It will save you a hell of a lot of trouble and give you more time to write.” - Richard Hugo

75. “arrogance is knowledge minus wisdom” - Celso Cukierkorn

76. “Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

77. “Arrogance is thinking you are above someone else, Confidence is knowing no one is above you.” - Habeeb Akande

78. “... a comment with the idle arrogance common of such nobodies who have just come into a small bit of power.” - Dan Simmons

79. “I didn't know that there was a thin line between ignorance and arrogance.” - Faraaz Kazi

80. “Arrogance is someone claiming to have come to Christ, but they won't spend more than five minutes listening to your journey because they are more concerned about their own well being, rather than being a true disciple of Christ. Blessed is the person that takes the time to heal and hear another person so they can move on.” - Shannon L. Alder

81. “Ah, how the seeds of cockiness blossom when soiled in ignorance.” - Steve Alten

82. “Someone who is determinedly trying to show God how good he or she is is likely to become an insufferable prig.” - N.T. Wright

83. “You can't let the truth bring out the worst and let it get the best of you.” - Criss Jami

84. “Modesty is only arrogance by stealth.” - Terry Pratchett

85. “The wide world was changing, and she wanted a different place in it.Not just wanted, but felt she deserved. If the world didn't owe her a living, as her mother repeatedly warned her, it owed her a break. She had a strong sense that a better, more exciting, more rewarding life than that which had been the lot of her parents and grandparents was hers by right. In this she was guilty of nothing more serious than the arrogance of youth, from which every generation suffers and by which it distinguishes itself from the preceding one.” - James Robertson

86. “Arrogance is shown in one's respect to the truth.” - Lionel Suggs

87. “Confirming what you see as reality...is a true sign of your arrogance.” - Lionel Suggs

88. “With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of everybody's feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange everybody's destiny. She was proved to have been universally mistaken; and she had not quite done nothing — for she had done mischief.” - Jane Austen

89. “He inclined his head ever so slightly, displaying with his bearing the supreme confidence, even arrogance, that is the sole providence of cats, dragons, and certain highborn women.” - Christopher Paolini

90. “...a great man who is vicious will only be a great doer of evil, and a rich man who is not liberal will be only a miserly beggar; for the possessor of wealth is not made happy by possessing it, but by spending it - and not by spending as he please but by knowing how to spend it well. To the poor gentleman there is no other way of showing that he is a gentleman than by virtue, by being affable, well-bred, courteous, gentle-mannered and helpful; not haughty, arrogant or censorious, but above all by being charitable...and no one who sees him adorned with the virtues I have mentioned, will fail to recognize and judge him, though he know him not, to be of good stock.” - Miguel Cervantes

91. “Of all the major religions, or lack thereof, the atheist's is one of the best pretenders: his foundation for all existences, as well as moral behaviors for the permanent good of mankind, begins at science but ends at himself, the Napoleon complex of both intelligence and imagination. On the other hand the anti-theist wouldn't survive without a deity beyond himself to hunt. He doesn't pretend, he simply nullifies his own position.” - Criss Jami

92. “It's much easier on the emotions when one sees life as an experiment rather than a struggle for popularity.” - Criss Jami

93. “The challenge of abating one with a genuine ego problem is to not try to put him down. Any and all antagonization, in his mind, is merely compensated for by his own descriptions: his feelings of persecution by the envious and his ideals of worth. Arguably, the genuine ego is more of a circumstantial defense mechanism rather than a steady arrogance in need of starvation.” - Criss Jami

94. “Arrogance likes to appear humble in public.” - Toba Beta

95. “Before I met the Jesuits, I’d never encountered another group who thought that intellect and arrogance were treasures beyond price and necessities in waging wars against blasphemers, heretics.” - Pat Conroy

96. “All my life I have placed great store in civility and good manners, practices I find scarce among the often hard-edged, badly socialized scientists with whom I associate. Tone of voice means a great deal to me in the course of debate. I despise the arrogance and doting self-regard so frequently found among the very bright.” - Edward O. Wilson

97. “Stupid people will mistake your confidence for arrogance.” - Habeeb Akande

98. “Knowing God without knowing our wretchedness leads to pride. Knowing our wretchedness without knowing God leads to despair. Knowing Jesus Christ is the middle course, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness.” - Blaise Pascal

99. “Arrogance is trying to convince others you're more than who they know you are.” - Bianca Frazier

100. “Put that in your self-righteous pipe and smoke it!!!.” - R. Alan Woods

101. “This boy was likely to die soon, but he died yesterday - because of a doctor's arrogance, his unwillingness to seek a consult, his neglect to get a full and thorough history. Arrogance! We are clinicians, scientists. We observe time-honored procedures and analyses - that's how we are trained. And this is what happens when we subjugate that training to arrogance!” - Dr. Hooten Monday Mornings

102. “Only God is in a position to look down upon someone.” - Habeeb Akande

103. “Since the war, we're the only intelligent species left in the universe, therefore we think everything in this universe has to conform to our paradigm of what makes sense. Do you have any idea how arrogant that view is and on how little of this universe we base it?” - Robert Buettner

104. “Do not turn your face from others with pride, nor walk arrogantly on earth. Verily the Almighty does not like those who are arrogant and boastful.” - Anonymous

105. “...If there's one thing I'm well versed in it's my own good qualities.” - Patrick Rothfuss

106. “Nobody wants to give up a weekend-long excuse to dress up and attempt to outshine one another.” - Elizabeth Eulberg

107. “You're so arrogant, you're almost macho.” - Peggy Webb

108. “Those who claim the right to that arrogance without accomplishments to back it up deserve to be exposed.” - Jeff Ashton