With people of only moderate ability modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

Schopenhauer draws a sharp, characteristically cynical distinction between ordinary social virtue and the self-presentation of exceptional individuals. For people of average gifts, modesty can be a straightforward recognition of real limits—an honest alignment between self-estimate and ability. But when someone truly possesses “great talent,” he suggests, public modesty often becomes a strategic pose: a way to manage envy, avoid conflict, or win admiration by seeming reluctant to claim what is in fact deserved. The remark critiques social conventions that reward self-effacement and implies that greatness is frequently forced into dissimulation by the pressures of polite society.