Humility or being humble is the opposite of pride or being proud. When you are proud you think you are better than others and want your way. When you are humble you assume the best of others and the worst of yourself, as Thomas a Kempis said. You do not want your way: you want to carry out the will of those in authority over you and that, above all, means God’s will.
We think we are better than we are, certainly better than most people, and want to get our way. That is pride speaking. It is human nature.
The truth is we are worse than we think – in our minds we play up all of our good points and avoid looking squarely at our bad points – or make excuses for them: “She made me do it!”, “Everyone does it” and so on.
But even if we got our way, it would not always be a good idea. Anyone who has tried to lose weight or get rid of a bad
habit knows that our wills are not always to be trusted. What we want, even in simple cases, is not always for the best.
We have all seen children who always get their way because their parents let them. Does it make them happier? Does it make them better? No. We feel sorry for them. But just as a child is to his parents, so we are to God. When we do not listen to God and want our way, we are no better than children like that.
Pride leads us into foolish decisions and makes us mean and cold-hearted. This is easy to see in others but not in ourselves. We think we are better than that. But are we? Or is that our pride speaking again, catching us in its endless net?
If pride is the disease then humility is the cure, the state of health.
Thomas a Kempis said to assume the best of others and the worst of ourselves. Not because we are so much worse than others – we are about the same – but because we naturally tend to make the opposite mistake. So if we do as he says we will get it just about right.
Humility admits that we do not always know what is best, that we are not always right, that our desires are not always the best guide. Which is true.
Humility is the only way we can truly follow God. Pride is where we make a god of ourselves, and a blind god at that.
Humility is truer and better, pride leads far from God and far from the truth of things.
The proud fear to be humble because they are afraid that others will look down on them and take advantage of them. But being humble is not about letting people walk all over you. It is about knowing your limits and doing what is right.
Abagond 
There’s a lot of that “pride” going on here with some commenters.
Yes, again this pride pertains to the certain commenters on this blog who seem to think they know what is best for black people and other people of color.
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Abagond
Pride is necessary for some. Without it, their world would crumble.
Looking in the mirror and not liking what you see is hard. Even harder to change. Some try. Some don’t want to try. And some know if they try, they’ll fail.
It’s funny that racism, xenophobia, misogyny, etc are the root of a proud heart, no?
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i think you mean arrogance not pride. being proud is not so much about thinking you’re better than others, it’s more to do with recognising goodness in yourself, however i do recognise that arrogance/ hubris is the unbalanced extreme side of pride. however, humility also has an unbalanced extremity: the belief that you don’t matter or matter less than others. that is more common than you’d think, certainly enough of a problem to merit mention.
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