Vance Havner Quotes

I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom I know most faults.

All of us should be much more humble and contrite when we point the finger at somebody else, because four more fingers are pointing back at us.

I must congratulate myself, in passing, for never having lost the ability to examine my conscience, never having lost the gift of finding myself wanting & defective. Why fear the criticism of others when you, yourself, are first out of the critical gate? If self-denigration is the race I am the winner, even before the starting gun. Collect the bets.

'What am I missing?' is a much more important question than 'How cool am I?'

I have realised it is easy to point fingers at others, but the moment you start questioning yourself, you become a better person.

I always see what I did wrong, what I could do better.

Judge yourself; if you sincerely and humbly do that, you will not be judged by God.

Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offences, we should be less apt to judge other people.

I wish I could say confidently that pacing remains my weak point, if you could talk about your own stuff without sounding like you're self-obsessed. But I think you kind of have to be.

I'm not good at watching myself.

I am critical of myself.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.

I'm the greatest critic of my work.

People still say I am over-confident, but I am a big critic of myself.

Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice.

Ignorance is always ready to admire itself. Procure yourself critical friends.

That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it's because you're truly a wise man.

Who judges best of a Man, his Enemies or himself?

If you think everything you've done is great, you're probably dumb.

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.

No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success until he begins to look in a mirror for the real cause of all his mistakes.

To be aware of a single shortcoming within oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in somebody else.

Judge yourself and beware of passing judgement on others. In judging others we expend our energy to no purpose; we are often mistaken and easily sin. But if we judge ourselves our labour is always to our profit.

Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.