Can a non-great person claim to be humble?
I saw a quote by Golda Meir
Don't be so humble; you're not that great.
Can a non-great person claim to be humble?
I now wonder if I have misused "humble" in the past. I knew I wasn't great (but not too bad either), but I said I am humble and sincere in a self-evaluation.
Solution 1:
No,you have not.
I do not know the context of this statement by Golda Meir but I guess being humble in this context means being modest even after being great.So,if a proletarian tries to show how modest then it does not really matter because it is the expected behavior in society.On the other hand,if a celebrity or someone great starts behaving without much pride then we say he is humble.So,if you are behaving modest even after being special(in any sense like you are rich or intelligent) then your usage is not incorrect.
Solution 2:
According to Stephen Spector, May I Quote You on That?: A Guide to Grammar and Usage (2015), Golda Meir's quotation "Don't be so humble. You're not that great." appeared in the New York Times of March 18, 1969. Fred Shapiro, The Yale Book of Quotations (2006) corroborates Spector's source—or perhaps Spector based his information on the Yale reference work. There is some dispute, however, as to whether Meir was speaking to "an acquaintance" (as this book from 1998 has it) or to "one of her ministers" (as this book from 2003 reports) or to "a visiting diplomat" (as this book from 2005 says) or to "General Moshe Dayan" (as this book from 2012 insists). Of the four suspects, Dayan seems to be the one cited most frequently.
If Meir did address the comment to Dayan, it is worth noting that he had played a central role in Israel's victory over Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the Six-Day War of 1967. His generalship was so admired in the late 1960s and early 1970s that President Nixon is said to have offered (jokingly) to trade any three U.S. generals for Dayan; Meir supposedly suggested, as the three U.S. generals she wanted, General Motors, General Electric, and General Dynamics.
In any event, Dayan was widely viewed in 1969 as a brilliant military strategist, which adds a certain sharpness to the second half of Meir's admonition. But viewed at face value, Meir's quotation doesn't mean that only the truly great can be genuinely humble, and that everyone else is just putting on airs in reverse, as Uriah Heep does in David Copperfield. Rather, it means that only the greatest of the great can afford not to take credit for their successes. Successful though Dayan has been, Meir implies, it is politically inexpedient for him to downplay his accomplishments.