self-underrating

Updated: May 13, 2025

Two sentences of his conversation were quite sufficient to stamp his individuality. "The first thing which struck me was the utter absence of all the mock-modesty, and the pretended self-underrating, conventionally assumed by persons expecting to be complimented upon their sayings or doings. Jasmin seemed thoroughly to despise all such flimsy hypocrisy.

Samuel Smiles - Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist