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Quotations about Confidence
We have to serve ourself many years before we gain our own confidence. ~Henry Stanley Haskins, "Habit and Association," Meditations in Wall Street, 1940
You can trust yourself into greatness, or you can doubt yourself into oblivion. You can trust yourself into excellence, or you can doubt yourself into mediocrity. You can trust yourself into victory, or you can doubt yourself into defeat. ~William Arthur Ward, "The Wisdom of Trusting Yourself"
I will not pray for strength. Dear Heaven, I am a Hercules of disseminated force. I will not pray for opportunity. Dear Lord, the time and place are mine when I am equal to the time and place. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven...
~William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, c.1602
If I would be queen tomorrow when I sit upon a throne, I must be not less a queen today in my hand-maiden sphere. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912
The light of starry dreams can only be seen once we escape the blinding cities of disbelief. ~Shawn Purvis, shawnpurvis.com, December 2009 entry to The Quote Garden create your own quote contest on Twitter, @quotegarden
I will release all the confined forces of my soul and apply them directly to that which I may be. I will release all my thousand possibilities and send them broadside against life. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: XXIV," A Soul's Faring, 1921
One learns to ignore criticism by first learning to ignore applause. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com, 2018
Your present field may be limited, but you are not limited by your field. Great men have sprung from the furrows and have grown up with the pumpkins. ~Charles F. Raymond, "The Call to the Young," Just Be Glad, 1907
Whatever I pledged for myself in my wildest extravagant moments shall be the truth for me. Talk not to me of sober estimate, — I set a daring limit when drunk with expectancy. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
Who thinks he will fail — will probably fail. Who believes that dreams are only dreams — will probably find it so. Who doubts himself — will achieve only such results as will confirm it. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904
I do not ask for faith in a God, but give me faith in myself, and then if there is a God I shall do him credit. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912
Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered — either by themselves or by others. ~Mark Twain
Once I despaired that I was the despised unloveliness under your heel. Now I know that worms have a blue and golden beauty enfolded — and wings. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of Longing: II," At the Roots of Grasses, 1923
You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.
This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link.
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy. ~Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), The Prophet
Ten thousand voices say No, but I come in ten thousands multiples of my strength.
I am my own affirmative that transcends all negatives and denials.
The day renounces me — and I sink my roots deeper into the centuries.
~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of the Strong: XV," A Soul's Faring, 1921
What a fool, quoth he, am I thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty? I have a Key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any Lock in Doubting Castle. ~John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is To Come, 1678
Vilhelm Foldal. I myself have had my doubts, now and then, I may tell you. A horrible doubt that I may have frittered away my life for the sake of a delusion.
Borkman. If you doubt yourself, then you stand on shaky ground indeed.
Foldal. That was why I found such comfort in coming here to lean upon your faith in me.
~Henrik Ibsen, John Gabriel Borkman, 1896
A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number of obscure men who have only remained obscure because their timidity has prevented them from making a first effort... The fact is, that in order to do any thing in this world worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank, and thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. ~Sydney Smith, "On the Conduct of the Understanding," lecture, c.1804
I will demand of myself those things that take the measure of my possibilities. Too long I have been chimney-sweep of life, when I might have been sweeping the stardust of Heaven. If one becomes the expression of one's dominant thought, have I thought dish-water or dew, scullery pans or roses?... Do I think my narrow human life, or do I sometimes think God? ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: XIV," A Soul's Faring, 1921
We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1963
Sometimes it is not the world in general but a man's own parish which causes him to wince and quail. A newspaper gets on his track and misreports him. His sermons are garbled and his actions are misjudged, and the mangled son of thunder goes about bleeding at every pore. A man too thin-skinned to stand newspaper criticism is not a fit man to lead the Lord's army. A newspaper is frequently the most unprincipled and merciless of antagonists... but a minister who is wise will never enter into a controversy with a newspaper. To be beaten with a few stinging sentences is not so painful as to be beaten with a Roman scourge.... If a minister cannot sing after being trounced by the most merciless reporter who ever poured bad blood into ink, he should get out of the pulpit and seek a position where thin skin is not a hindrance to duty.
Or the anonymous coward instead of attacking him in a newspaper may stab him through the mail. Two or three anonymous letters will cause some men to swell up as though they had been bitten by tarantulas.... The criticism may not be written but spoken. It may float through the atmosphere in the shape of poisonous rumors.
~Charles Edward Jefferson, "Clerical Hamlets," Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers in My Study, 1901
Nothing gives a man more confidence in himself than the habit of perseverance. ~Thomas Clark Henley, A Handful of Paper Shavings, 1861
Self-confidence is no doubt useful, but it would be more correct to say that what was wanted was firstly perseverance, secondly perseverance, and thirdly perseverance. ~John Lubbock, "Industry," The Use of Life, 1894
Nothing reduces the odds against you like ignoring them. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot. ~Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1958, spoken by the character Holly Golightly
Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
~William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, c.1604
I will live the free-hand life — I will rise up at dawn, and with sure, unfaltering faith, create the day. I will come at noon, and with the assurance of a master, paint the heavens. I will come at night, and with the confidence of one who cannot fail, hang a million stars in the sky. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: XLI," A Soul's Faring, 1921
Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1963
Strength will always be with you, you just have to find it. ~Ann-Marie Hevey, @Kinkers, September 2010 entry to The Quote Garden create your own quote contest on Twitter, @quotegarden
Life marks us all down, so it's just as well that we start out by overpricing ourselves. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1963
We all have our limitations, but when we listen to our critics, we also have theirs. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1963
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Men harm others by their deeds, themselves by their thoughts. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
Lovely weather so far; I don't know how long it will last, but I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. ~Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1869
How often in life we complete a task that was beyond the capability of the person we were when we started it. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
In the assurance of strength, there is strength, and they are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their powers. ~C. Nestell Bovee
Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there. ~Henry Miller, Sexus
Self-confidence grows on trees, in other people's orchards. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1963
We learn to wield our own strengths, and fear flips over — dead! ~Terri Guillemets, "Getting along, stopping not," 2007
Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world, a heaven... All that Adam had, all that Cæsar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Cæsar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobler's trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar's garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature"
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