Quote Origin: Humility Is a Strange Thing. The Moment You Think You’ve Got It, You’ve Lost It

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Edward Hulse? Leewin B. Williams? Viola Brothers Shore? Arthur Godfrey? Walter Winchell? Anonymous?

Minimalist illustration of a bowing figure representing humility

Question for Quote Investigator: The feeling of humility is paradoxical. The instant you become self-aware and proud of your humility, it disappears. This thought has been stated as follows:

Humility is a strange thing. The moment you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.

Sir Edward Hulse has received credit for this expression, but I am skeptical of this attribution because I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Sir Edward Hulse, 6th Baronet, died in 1903. The 7th Baronet died in 1915. QI has found no substantive evidence that either employed this saying. The earliest match found by QI appeared in a 1938 work titled “Master Book of Humorous Illustrations” compiled and edited by Leewin B. Williams. This book contained thousands of brief passages about miscellaneous topics. The following sentence appeared at the top of a page without attribution:1

“Humility is that strange thing that the moment you think you have it, you have lost it.”

QI believes that the creator remains anonymous. QI conjectures that the attribution to Sir Edward Hulse resulted from a naming confusion. A different person named E. D. Hulse was linked to the saying via a religious periodical in 1967. See the details further below.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1925 Viola Brothers Shore published a column titled “Saws for the Goose” in newspapers such as the “Tampa Morning Tribune” of Florida2 and the “Camden Post-Telegram” of New Jersey.3 Shore printed a precursor statement using the same template, but the statement referred to gentility instead of humility:

Gentility is a fairy gift. The minute you think you’ve got it you ain’t got it.

In 1938 the statement about humility appeared in the book “Master Book of Humorous Illustrations” as mentioned previously.

In January 1939 “The Pittsburgh Courier” of Pennsylvania printed a miscellaneous group of sayings under the title “Thoughts for the Week”. The group included these three items:4

Don’t preach too long. Better leave the people longing than loathing.
You cannot cash checks on heavens’ bank without first making deposits.
Humility is that strange thing that the moment you think you have it, you have lost it.

In April 1939 the “Ventura County Star-Free Press” of California printed a short piece called “Daily Devotionals” which included the saying with identical phrasing.5

In 1941 “The Encyclopedia of Creative Thought” edited by Martha Lupton, Alta Gwinn Saunders, and Maxwell Droke printed the statement in a section titled “Humility” within a sub-section titled “Definitions”.6

In November 1953 the religious journal “Glad Tidings” printed an instance without the word “that”:7

Humility is a strange thing—the moment you think you have it, you have lost it.

Also, in November 1953 the Associated Press published a profile of prominent entertainer Arthur Godfrey who credited the saying to popular columnist Walter Winchell:8

Does Arthur Godfrey have humility?
His answer: “As Walter Winchell says, when you think you have it, you have lost it. Do I have humility: I doubt it. I doubt it.”

In 1957 “The Boston Sunday Globe” printed a letter to the editor which contained an instance:9

I thought you and the Globe sisters would be interested in the best definition of “humility” that I have ever read: “Humility is that which when you know you have it you’ve lost it.” This was in my son’s Sunday school paper “Hi Call.”

In 1962 the compilation “Apples of Gold” edited by Jo Petty contained a version using the word “minute” instead of “moment”:10

Humility is a strange thing. The minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.

In 1962 Dr. Herbert Lockyer published “All the Promises of the Bible”, and he included a discussion about humility:11

Proud of being humble is surely the worst form of pride. This is what Charles Dickens satirized in his character, Uriah Heep, who proudly confessed, “We are so very ’umble.” In one of his devotional books, Dr. De Haan has the thought—“Humility is that strange possession which you lose the moment you find out you’ve got it.” Marcus Aurelius says that, “Nothing is more scandalous than a man that is proud of his humility.”

In February 1967 “Quote: The Weekly Digest” printed the saying while acknowledging a religious periodical and E. D. Hulse:12

Humility is a strange thing, the minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it. — E D Hulse, Bashford Methodist Messenger.

QI believes that some readers confused the name E. D. Hulse with the name Sir Edward Hulse. This led to the misattribution of the saying to Sir Edward Hulse.

In April 1967 the linkage to E. D. Hulse was printed in the humor section of “The Wall Street Journal”:13

Slippery Stuff
Humility is a strange thing, the minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.
— E. D. Hulse.

In September 1967 the linkage to E. D. Hulse was printed again in the “Quotable Quotes” section of the “Reader’s Digest”:14

Humility is a strange thing. The minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it. —E. D. Hulse in Bashford Methodist Messenger

In 1980 “The Quotable Quotations Book” compiled by Alec Lewis included this entry:15

Humility is a strange thing, the minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.
E. D. HULSE, Bashford Methodist Messenger, Feb. 1967

In 2016 “The Ultimate Leader: Learning, Leading and Leaving a Legacy of Hope” by Brigette Tasha Hyacinth contained the following:16

“Humility is a strange thing; the minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it” —Sir Edward Hulse.

In conclusion, this saying appeared in the 1938 book “Master Book of Humorous Illustrations”. No attribution was listed, and the creator remains anonymous. The misattribution to Sir Edward Hulse was probably based on confusion with a person named E. D. Hulse who received credit in 1967.

Image Notes: Public domain illustration depicting a minimalist bowing figure representing humility.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Jeff Johnson whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Johnson’s request appeared in the October 2025 issue of “The Quote Unquote Newsletter” edited by quotation expert Nigel Rees.

  1. 1938 Copyright, Master Book of Humorous Illustrations, Compiled and Edited by Leewin B. Williams, Quote Page 14, Cokesbury Press, Nashville, Tennessee. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  2. 1925 September 18, Tampa Morning Tribune, Saws for the Goose by Viola Brothers Shore, Quote Page 16B, Column 1, Tampa, Florida. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  3. 1925 September 18, Camden Post-Telegram, Saws for the Goose (by Viola Brothers Shore), Quote Page 15, Column 1, Camden, New Jersey. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  4. 1939 January 7, The Pittsburgh Courier, Thoughts for the Week, Quote Page 19, Column 8, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  5. 1939 April 11, Ventura County Star-Free Press, Daily Devotionals, Quote Page 10, Column 7, Ventura, California. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  6. 1941 Copyright, The Encyclopedia of Creative Thought, Edited by Martha Lupton, Alta Gwinn Saunders, and Maxwell Droke, Topic: Humility, Quote Page 338 and 339, Maxwell Droke Publisher, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  7. 1953 November, Glad Tidings, Volume 28, Number 11, (Filler item), Quote Page 2, Column 2, The Official Organ of the Northern California and Nevada District Council of the Assemblies of God, Inc., Santa Cruz, California. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  8. 1953 November 15, The Atlanta Journal, What Is Arthur Godfrey—Lovable Redhead or Tyrant? by Saul Pett (Associated Press), Quote Page 16E, Column 2, Atlanta, Georgia. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  9. 1957 March 24, The Boston Sunday Globe, Humility, Quote Page A13, Column 7, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  10. 1962, Apples of Gold, Compiled by Jo Petty, Chapter: Meekness, Quote Page 78, The C. R. Gibson Company, Norwalk, Connecticut. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  11. 1962, All the Promises of the Bible by Dr. Herbert Lockyer, Chapter 7: The Scope of the Promises, Section: Promises Relative to the Spiritual Realm, Quote Page 512, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  12. 1967 February 5, Quote: The Weekly Digest, Volume 53, Number 6, Topic: Humility, Quote Page 108, Column 2, Droke House Inc., Anderson, South Carolina. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  13. 1967 April 13, Wall Street Journal, Pepper and Salt, Quote Page 16, Column 1, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  14. 1967 September, Reader’s Digest, Volume 91, Number 545, Quotable Quotes, Quote Page 181, The Reader’s Digest Association, Pleasantville, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  15. 1980, The Quotable Quotations Book, Compiled by Alec Lewis, Topic: Humility, Quote Page 126, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
  16. 2016 Copyright, The Ultimate Leader: Learning, Leading and Leaving a Legacy of Hope by Brigette Tasha Hyacinth, Chapter 2: Humility: The Foundation of All Great Leaders, Quote Page 37, No publisher is listed. (Verified with scans) ↩︎