Personally,if I was in the presence of someone much nicer than me. Or if I witnessed a really nice gesture.
Of course, it has myriad meanings. Eg, others might substitute better/ greater for nicer. And heroic for nice.
Why, has someone said you make them feel humble, Chips? ;)
( If someone said it to me, I'd assume they were rather drunk)
Humble - hearing about something which is way over the call of duty for most people, something I might not have thought of doing, gratefulness that someone thinks enough of me to do that for me.
If I were to meet someone who has been awarded the Victoria Cross. A person who had such courage in the face of almost certain death would make me feel very small.
Someone who is truly humble would not be the person who thinks lower of himself than others think he should because in fact, this would show that he was really considering himself to be better than he actually is.
The humble person would not be thinking of himself at all.
Not many people actually possess this quality. Certainly as regards those on this site I have not seen anyone who is humble.
O.K. idio..... that is what it means to you. In fact there is a spectrum of humility which most of us fall in to. What you are describing is a goal of perfection to which many people think they should strive
The ones that scare me are the individuals who think they have reached it!
Whilst altruism, compassion, generosity and selflessness are admirable traits, ‘humbleness’ smacks of self-deprecation – something enthusiastically encouraged by the church in order to remind humanity of its ineffectuality - but not something that any sensible human being should aspire to.
I believe being humble is a marvellous thing and well-worth carrying through life. To me it means listening to others and thinking about what they say, irrespective of what we regard as our intelligence and irrespective of our academic qualifications.
E.g.: I was looking at manual/semi-manual shavers and wondering if they were better than my throw-aways. Someone silently stood beside me. I asked, without looking round, "do you understand what they all do?"
He somewhat unclearly said all very good 'specially at getting at those liddle hairs right under the nose. I said "wow" that's good but what about this battery one. He mumbled "it eermm cleans the shaving cream off the blades, I fink". I said O.K. I'll buy it.
I looked around and realised he was autistic.
To hell with my sometimes built-in arrogance: that guy knew his stuff and I wish I could meet him again to thank him for helping "clever-@rsed" me to choose what I was looking for.
SIQ.
naomi // ‘humbleness’ smacks of self-deprecation – something enthusiastically encouraged by the church in order to remind humanity of its ineffectuality//
Naomi hits the nail on the head. I recall many years ago when discussing with a JW doorknocker. She sincerely and repeatedly described herself as "worthless" without God. It certainly left an impression on me.
The feeling of wretchedness is exactly what churches want because it gives them the power to manipulate.
The issue has never been so well articulated as in this incisive essay that should leave any objective reader in no doubt: