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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48777
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

I would say that the humble person should down play a thing they should be proud of, only to be admonished after the down play.

The animated film "Superman: Doomsday (2008)" has a great example... only there is one hitch. Lois Lane is visiting Superman in the Fortress of Solitude on a date and Superman notices her mind is elsewhere. Lois explains that one of her co-workers just left for a war correspondence in Afganistan and she's worried she may never see her again. Superman shows humility by explaining he doesn't consider himself a hero because he's bullet proof. To him, a real hero will put himself at risk for others, something Superman isn't capable of doing. Of course the hitch in showing this as being Superman's humility is that the co-worker in question is Clark Kent (its clear early on that this Lois Lane isn't stupid and she figured out Clark Kent was Superman on her own, but respects him enough to let him tell her rather than confront it. The worry over Clark Kent was trying to provide an opening... and it's implied that Superman knows that Lois knows, or at least, might know, and is still feeling out the situation, hence the dodge... he's relying on Superman having an deserved reputation for humility that he wouldn't talk up himself, even if it's him under a secret identity... and if Lois knew he was, she'd call foul on him.). But either way, it still fits as Superman does actually see his heroics as just being a decent human being (well, you know... not literally) and his work is no different than a tall guy helping a little old lady get an item on the top shelf in a supermarket. It's not heroic, it's being nice. Heroes go above and beyond the call (Superman gets a chance to meet this definition in the film. Twice.).

A more straight version comes up from time to time in the Doctor Who series, notably in the second story line of the 11th doctor, where twice an assembly of allies comes to his aide in a desperate hour. In one episode, the closest thing he has to a girlfriend has to point out that the Doctor is a good man (despite him not viewing himself in that way) and that many alien languages have used the word "doctor" after their encounters with him and more often than not, it means something akin to "a healer and wise man) (generally the title denotes one of the two in English). In the season finale, the theme is continued when the Doctor is at his most desperate hour, and facing impossible odds, for a sudden cavlery to arrive to support him and turn the tide of the conflict. When the Doctor is confused why, the girlfriend tells him to look at the night sky and then reminds him that many of the stars he's looking at would not be there were it not for his work and then she admonishes him for not even considering the true size of people in the universe who would gladly leap at the opportunity to return the favor (and many of them would consider this as not even paying interest on the debt of gratitude owed to the doctor).

It helps that at this stage of the story, the Doctor had a lot of humility heaped on him (though he didn't need the humiliation, he was humbled long before that point) and needed someone to point out that he is a good man with heart to spare (literally and figuratively... the show's lore states that the Doctor's race has two hearts, though most of them are jerks). Like Superman, the Doctor considers himself ordinary... though just clever... and just happens to be passing though on his time machine and being helpful when needed.

In both examples, the person ascribes humility to the character after they describe their extraordinary feats and accomplishments as not worthy of the praise and admiration everyone gives him. Both firmly believe that most people would do the same thing in their shoes. They just don't have the ability to fly or travel through time.

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