“I am convinced that all that is needed in order to achieve what I want is bravery and self-confidence. I certainly have enough self-confidence…I told myself that I shall either be a general at thirty, or that I shall not be alive by then.”

“While clothes may not make the woman, they certainly have a strong effect on her self-confidence, which, I believe, does make the woman.”

“I have great faith in fools — self-confidence my friends will call it.”

“I never compare myself to others.
I never use my family's name to acquire anything.
I want people to like and look at what I have personally accomplished …on my own, and the person I am as a result.
I have always been the best in every field I have chosen.
I feel confident that I shall succeed beautifully in any endeavor I put my mind to.
I realize that this may sound conceited, but it is more a confidence.
However when I put my heart and soul into anything,
the positive outcomes yield overall
superlative results.”

“All I can tell you with certainty is that I, for one, have no self, and that I am unwilling or unable to perpetrate upon myself the joke of a self…. What I have instead is a variety of impersonations I can do, and not only of myself — a troupe of players that I have internalised, a permanent company of actors that I can call upon when a self is required…. I am a theater and nothing more than a theater.”

“I am driven to observe of the ultra-Darwinists the following features as symptomatic. First, to my eyes, is their almost unbelievable self-assurance, their breezy self-confidence.”

“I deem we have still much to do and will of course strive for stabilizing the situation in the country and continuing reforms. I am confident in success. All we need at this point is public order.”

“I am interested in detail. I enjoy decoration. By accumulating this mass of detail you throw light on things in a longer sense: in the long run it all adds up. It creates a texture — how shall I put it — a background, a period, which makes everything you write that much more convincing. Of course, all artists are terrible egoists. Unconsciously you are largely writing about yourself. I could never write anything factual; I only have confidence in myself when I am another character. All the characters in my books are myself, but they are a kind of disguise.”

“As I have your Excellency's permission, I shall order General Stephen on as far as Aquackanock, at least. That is an important pass. I am fortifying it as fast as possible.”

“I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?”