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Who really said it

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less

Not Lewis’s words — a modern paraphrase of his idea C.S. Lewis 1898–1963 · the idea is his; the polished wording is not
Disputed In copyright

This tidy antithesis appears nowhere in Mere Christianity or any other work by Lewis. It is a modern summary of his teaching that humility means self-forgetfulness. Nearly identical wording — “Real humility is not thinking less of ourselves; it is thinking of ourselves less” — is documented in Rick Howard & Jamie Lash’s 1998 This Was Your Life! and was popularized by Rick Warren’s 2002 The Purpose Driven Life; a related aphorism was credited to Ken Blanchard as early as 1990.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less” Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. — a modern paraphrase of C.S. Lewis's teaching, worded by Rick Howard & Jamie Lash (1998) and popularized by Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life (2002). Lewis himself never wrote this sentence.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to C.S. Lewis. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Rick Warren / Zondervan (The Purpose Driven Life); Rick Howard & Jamie Lash (This Was Your Life!)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of C.S. Lewis — Oxford & Cambridge scholar, author of Mere Christianity. Theme: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

A modern paraphrase of Lewis, not a Lewis quote

Claimed source
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (not found there)
Earliest near-exact wording
Rick Howard & Jamie Lash, This Was Your Life! (1998)
Popularized by
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (2002)
Related aphorism
Ken Blanchard, credited 1990

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.

What Lewis actually wrote, in the chapter “The Great Sin,” is that the truly humble man “will not be thinking about himself at all” — the self-forgetfulness half of the popular line, without its neat “not thinking less of yourself” antithesis.

Barry Popik: tracing ‘thinking of yourself less’

The paper trail

  • The C.S. Lewis Foundation lists this line among quotes NOT written by Lewis, tracing it instead to Rick Warren or to Rick Howard & Jamie Lash.
  • Etymologist Barry Popik’s chronology finds the earliest kindred line in a March 1990 Democrat and Chronicle crediting Ken Blanchard: “Don’t think less of yourself, just think of yourself less.”
  • Christianity Today notes the near-exact wording — “Real humility is not thinking less of ourselves; it is thinking of ourselves less” — appears in Howard & Lash’s 1998 This Was Your Life!, which then quotes Lewis in the next breath.
  • Check Your Fact confirms the sentence appears nowhere in Mere Christianity or any other Lewis work.
In copyright

The line is not from a pre-1931 public-domain text. Its memorable modern wording is documented in Rick Howard & Jamie Lash’s This Was Your Life! (1998) and Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life (Zondervan, 2002) — both firmly in copyright. Because no single originating work can be pinned with certainty, treat the phrasing as a modern, in-copyright coinage rather than a public-domain quotation.

Fact-check

How Lewis got the credit

This is one of the most common quotations falsely pinned on C.S. Lewis. The sentence is a modern paraphrase of his teaching, not a line he wrote.

C.S. Lewis Misattributed

It appears in no Lewis book, essay, or letter. The C.S. Lewis Foundation lists it explicitly among quotes not by Lewis, and Check Your Fact confirms it is not in Mere Christianity.

Rick Howard & Jamie Lash / Rick Warren Actual source

The near-exact form is in Howard & Lash’s 1998 This Was Your Life!, which quotes Lewis in the following sentence; Rick Warren then rephrased and popularized it in The Purpose Driven Life (2002), without crediting Lewis. That summary-plus-Lewis-quote sequence is how the two got conflated.

Ken Blanchard Earlier variant

Per Barry Popik’s research, a March 1990 Democrat and Chronicle article credited management writer Ken Blanchard with “Don’t think less of yourself, just think of yourself less” — a distinct but kindred aphorism.

The polished antithesis is a modern paraphrase of Lewis’s point that humility is self-forgetfulness — not a sentence he ever wrote. See the Christianity Today account.

Context

Why the mix-up sticks

Lewis really did teach a version of this. In the Mere Christianity chapter “The Great Sin,” he argued that a genuinely humble person is not self-abasing but self-forgetful — someone who “will not be thinking about himself at all.” The popular quotation captures that spirit almost perfectly, which is exactly why it feels like something Lewis would have said.

The wording that circulates, though, is a later compression. Writers summarizing Lewis’s idea set their paraphrase right next to a genuine Lewis quotation, and over time the paraphrase absorbed his name. The result is a saying that is true to Lewis’s thought but not to his pen.

The idea is Lewis’s. The sentence is not.

The genuine Lewis passage

In “The Great Sin,” Lewis writes that if you met a truly humble man you would think him a cheerful, intelligent person who took a real interest in you — and that “he will not be thinking about himself at all.” That is the authentic root of the popular line, minus its tidy “not thinking less of yourself” framing.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Humility Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quotes Misattributed to C.S. Lewiscslewis.org

The C.S. Lewis Foundation’s own list, naming this line as not by Lewis and pointing to Warren / Howard & Lash.
Tracing ‘thinking of yourself less’barrypopik.com

Etymologist Barry Popik’s dated chronology, from the 1990 Blanchard variant onward.
Fact check: did Lewis say it?checkyourfact.com

Confirms the sentence is absent from Mere Christianity and Lewis’s other works.
Why we misquote C.S. Lewischristianitytoday.com

Traces the Howard & Lash (1998) wording and Warren’s rephrasing that fused with Lewis’s name.
‘Humility Is Not’ analysisessentialcslewis.com

Detailed source-hunt confirming the quote is Warren’s, alongside Lewis’s genuine humility passages.

The idea behind the line

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis

1898–1963 · Oxford & Cambridge scholar, author of Mere Christianity

Clive Staples Lewis was a British literary scholar and Christian apologist, best known for Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Chronicles of Narnia. In the Mere Christianity chapter “The Great Sin,” he described genuine humility as self-forgetfulness — the humble man “will not be thinking about himself at all.” That idea is the seed later writers compressed into the popular antithesis, which is why his name keeps getting attached to words he never actually wrote.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Source

Rick Howard and Jamie Lash, This Was Your Life! Preparing to Meet God Face to Face (1998), earliest near-exact wording; popularized in Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002). Widely and wrongly attributed to C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952), where it does not appear.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/humility-is-not-thinking-less-of-yourself-its-thinking-of

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