There’s a distinct difference between confidence and…

“Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Self-confident people aren't afraid to have their views challenged. They relish the intellectual combat that enriches ideas.”

Jack Welch (1935) American executive: General Electric CEO

Source: Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001), Ch. 24.

“American capitalism is arrogant, self-confident, merciless and convinced of its capacity to dictate the destinies of the world.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Source: Article in The Daily Herald (14 December 1945), quoted in Mervyn Jones, Michael Foot (1994), p. 141

“Well, it was healthy to miss once in a while. It kept self-confidence balanced at a point safely short of arrogance.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Stars, Like Dust (1951), Chapter 20 “Where?” (p. 166)

“Confidence is a whisper, decisiveness is a calm tone, arrogance is a scream, and aggression is a buddy nose; one’s demeanor will describe the scene.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1979

“An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having been the first in "inventing" something. It's an arrogance that some enjoy, and others do not. Now I reach beyond arrogance when I proclaim that fractals had been pictured forever but their true role remained unrecognized and waited for me to be uncovered.”

Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010) Polish-born, French and American mathematician

A Theory of Roughness (2004)
Context: My book, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, reproduced Hokusai's print of the Great Wave, the famous picture with Mt. Fuji in the background, and also mentioned other unrecognized examples of fractality in art and engineering. Initially, I viewed them as amusing but not essential. But I changed my mind as innumerable readers made me aware of something strange. They made me look around and recognize fractals in the works of artists since time immemorial. I now collect such works. An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having been the first in "inventing" something. It's an arrogance that some enjoy, and others do not. Now I reach beyond arrogance when I proclaim that fractals had been pictured forever but their true role remained unrecognized and waited for me to be uncovered.

“Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

As quoted in The World's Best Thoughts on Life & Living (1981) compiled by Eugene Raudsepp; also quoted in The Michigan Daily http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/nov/11-10-98/arts/arts2.html (10 November 1998)

“People who know etiquette will not speak in an arrogant and boastful manner. They will not intentionally attack or demean others. They have enough patience to restrain themselves.”

Titon Rahmawan

“We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to William Carmichael and William Short (1793)
1790s

“So don’t boast, don’t be arrogant. You, at that moment, rise out of your self-centeredness to the type of living that makes you an integrated personality.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)
Context: We never get anywhere in this world without the forces of history and individual persons in the background helping us to get there. If you have the privilege of a fine education, well, you have it because somebody made it possible. If you have the privilege to gain wealth and a bit of the world’s goods, well, you have it because somebody made it possible. So don’t boast, don’t be arrogant. You, at that moment, rise out of your self-centeredness to the type of living that makes you an integrated personality.

“The difference between "organic" and "mechanical" in social matters is a moral one: the "organic" is the result of innumerable humble acts; the "mechanical" is the result of one decisive act of arrogance.”

Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) Colombian writer and philosopher

Sucesivos Escolios a un Texto Implícito (1992)

“There’s a distinct difference between confidence and boasting arrogance; when a problem hits a patch of difficult, the arrogant disappear but the confident remains in the fight.”

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