Wit & Attitude Quote by J.B. Priestley

Priestley’s line skewers a particularly English form of moral camouflage: turning emotional caution into a virtue badge. “Reserve” and “so-called shyness” are the tell. He’s not denying that shyness exists; he’s calling out how quickly a culture eager for decorum will rename fear as refinement. The sentence is built like a polite accusation that becomes, by the end, a social indictment: the praised man isn’t sensitive, he’s “too proud.” The real engine isn’t timidity but vanity.

The subtext is about risk. Priestley frames sociability and openness as a kind of courage, because they require exposure: you might misread a room, say something stupid, want someone who doesn’t want you back. “Making a fool of himself” is the everyday humiliation we all bargain with. Priestley’s twist is to suggest some people opt out not because they’re fragile, but because they’re invested in an untouchable self-image. Pride becomes a way to stay untested.

Context matters: Priestley came out of a Britain that prized restraint as class signal and moral posture, then watched two world wars stress-test those manners. His broader work often needles complacency and the comfortable stories societies tell to protect hierarchies. Here, he’s exposing a small, familiar hierarchy: the quiet man gets read as deep, the talkative one as gauche. Priestley flips the prestige, implying that what looks like dignity may just be self-protection posing as character.