Confidence ..., The Mechanics of Virtue, aphorism 337

337 

Confidence is the last step in the mastery of any skill. Without confidence, no matter how great one's sacrifice and effort in the development of the skill, mastery is forever withheld from us. Fortunately, even the smallest progress in developing the skill brings with it a new potential for confidence, which if called up from within us aids in turn our future efforts to develop the skill. Nonetheless, rallying up a confidence from within us and which believes it can send us beyond our previous achievements is imperative. Even if one's definition for virtue is not self-mastery, one still must accept that there can be no virtue without self-control, and there can be no self-control without self-mastery. The achievement of virtue entails a confidence not only in its worth and in its definition, but also in one's skill of application. Overconfidence, of course, is a blunder, and so we might then caution ourselves with a definition for humility. Nonetheless, virtue requires a type of pride, and without which one would be too humble for virtue.

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