Modesty is weakness, but humility is strength. A world of difference, therefore, exists between the two. The moment you say, “I say in all humility,” the very expression is the expression of the ego in you. Even if in your mind you feel that you are humble, this feeling is egoistic.
The difficulty does not end even if with true honesty you try to express true humility. An obstacle, such as the thought as to what others may think of your expression of humility, is bound to come. In modesty, you are constantly pestered with thoughts about your correct behavior to such an extent that an inferiority complex is self-created in you, and that is not strength but weakness.
No sooner humility is given an expression, it is no longer humility. It is humbug to give deliberate expression to humility. The life of humility is to be lived spontaneously, and it should not give rise to any thoughts either about humility or about modesty. For example, suppose you undertake to clean a latrine but when you actually begin to do so, you cannot help smelling the stink, whereas a sweeper who cleans them all his life will remain unaffected by the stench.
–LordMeher.org, p3479
February, 1954; Andhra