in all modesty

• with all modesty

in all modesty

1. (idiomatic) Prepended to praise of oneself or one's own doings, as a form of modesty.
   • 1916, Arthur Quiller-Couch, On the Art of Writing, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, page 78:

     But at any rate, and on the principle that of two hypotheses, each in itself adequate, we should choose the simpler, I suggest in all modesty that we shall do better with our own than with Coleridge's, which has the further disadvantage of being scarcely amenable to positive evidence.

   • 1934, Isak Dinesen, Seven Gothic Tales, page 134:

     It seems to me, in all modesty, that you are well paired.

   • 1990, Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game, page 20:

     I think I may say, in all modesty, that I have done a rare thing. I have invented a new sensation.

   • 2000, Yann Martel, Life of Pi, page 197:

     I speak in all modesty as I say this, but I discovered at that moment that I have a fierce will to live.