True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.

The saying contrasts humility with self-deprecation. It suggests that humility is not a negative self-assessment (“thinking less of yourself”) but a reorientation of attention away from the self (“thinking of yourself less”). In that sense, humility is compatible with recognizing one’s gifts and worth; what changes is the centrality of ego in one’s thoughts and actions. The line also implies that pride and insecurity can be close cousins, since both keep the self at the center. The ideal presented is a kind of self-forgetfulness that frees a person to attend to truth, duty, and other people without the constant need for comparison or self-justification.