What is the difference between being humble and kissing a$$!?

Being humble is a genuine human reaction. It involves not thinking more of yourself when you compare yourself to another person. This allows you to be able to accept a person with all their faults and not become easily hurt by what they say or do. A humble person has a high tolerance level and can laugh at a person's action and pass it over.

On the other hand, kissing @$$ is showing mock humility. You are only being humble to put on a show for someone else in the hope of being accepted or shown favor. You may pretend to pass things over but behind a person's back you think and say the opposite. Kissing @$$ is the opposite or being humble. It makes you a hypocrite.

When you're kissing @ss, what you're saying isn't genuine and it is only to trick somebody to gain something for yourself. Being humble is recognizing that the help you've gotten has genuinely helped you and made you someone you couldn't be without the help.

Humble is doing good things and not asking for/looking for or even thinking of getting credit for it such as driving up sales at work without saying anything. Kissing a$$ would be going out of the way to suck up to someone such as buying coffee for the boss man regularly in front of co-workers. ( I work in retail just in case you couldn't tell by the examples)

Kissing a$$ is flattery.