Our negative view of confidence can be overly dependent on the quirks of our own histories, or on the sort of people in whom we first encountered confidence, who were not its best representatives. Our real problem may not be confidence so much as a lack of other virtues such as manners, charm and generosity. We may be wrongly diagnosing the root of our objections. There may be a danger of growing into braggarts and self-seekers. But confidence is in its essence compatible with remaining sensitive, kind and softly spoken. It might be brutishness, not confidence, that we hate.
