351 quotes
Danger breeds best on too much confidence.
Pierre Corneille
Dramatist · French · 1606 – 1684
The team should have implicit confidence in the captain's decisions.
Lord Mountbatten
Soldier · British · 1900 – 1979
It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory.
Arthur Eddington
Scientist · British · 1882 – 1944
I have great confidence in Taiwan's democracy.
Chen Shui-bian
Statesman · b. 1951
Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.
Adlai E. Stevenson
Politician · American · 1900 – 1965
Sports nurtures dreams of achieving self confidence and masculine striving for the skinny kid watching a boxer dance around the ring with sublime ease.
Armstrong Williams
Journalist · American · b. 1959
I really think that's the key, part of the spiritual renewal that America needs to have, the notion that we really can have confidence in a better tomorrow.
Carol Moseley Braun
Politician · American · b. 1947
In international or national crises, there are always questions of lack of confidence. You have to change the minds of the people in order to get results.
Harri Holkeri
Politician · Finnish · b. 1937
Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself.
Potter Stewart
Judge · American · 1915 – 1985
I believe the public's confidence would be increased if the federal government took over the functions of airport security screening for all passengers.
David Neeleman
Businessman · Brazilian · b. 1959
France and Italy have not yet signed this treaty or agreed to naval limitation as between those nations, but I have confidence that in time they will do so.
Frank B. Kellogg
Politician · American · 1856 – 1937
With confidence, you have won before you have started.
Marcus Garvey
Publisher · Jamaican · 1887 – 1940
Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don't think the press has understood me.
Lyndon B. Johnson
President · American · 1908 – 1973
But I guess the lesson is this: If you don't have confidence in yourself and think that you are worth hiring, or whatever it is, you can't expect anyone else to.
Sam Donaldson
Journalist · American · b. 1934
Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.
Baltasar Gracian
Philosopher · Spanish · 1601 – 1658
Perhaps a child who is fussed over gets a feeling of destiny; he thinks he is the world for something important, and it gives him drive and confidence.
Benjamin Spock
Scientist · American · 1903 – 1998
When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Writer · Italian · 1469 – 1527
I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action.
Wole Soyinka
Dramatist · b. 1934
We must keep on trying to solve problems, one by one, stage by stage, if not on the basis of confidence and cooperation, at least on that of mutual toleration and self-interest.
Lester B. Pearson
Politician · Canadian · 1897 – 1972
One of the things that we can say with confidence is that we will have much lighter, much stronger materials, and this will reduce the cost of air flight, and the cost of rockets.
Ralph Merkle
Scientist · American · b. 1952
With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.
Saul Bellow
Novelist · American · 1914 – 2005
At this time I had complete confidence in Russian policy and believed that the Western Allies deliberately allowed Germany and Russia to fight each other to death.
Klaus Fuchs
Physicist · German · 1911 – 1988
I have confidence in people's basic common sense.
Dixie Lee Ray
Politician · American · 1914 – 1994
Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.
Pope John Paul II
Clergyman · Polish · 1920 – 2005
Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.
Catherine II
Statesman · Russian · 1729 – 1796
I have great confidence in the universal value and in basic human rights and I have great confidence that referenda will eventually take root and become part of our daily lives in Taiwan.
National markets are held together by shared values and confidence in certain minimum standards. But in the new global market, people do not yet have that confidence.
Kofi Annan
Statesman · b. 1938
At that time I had complete confidence in Russian policy and I believed that the Western Allies deliberately allowed Russia and Germany to fight each other to the death.
Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.
Arthur Helps
Historian · British · 1813 – 1875
If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality.
Oswald Chambers
Theologian · Scottish · 1874 – 1917
I believe that if corporate America expects consumer confidence to be restored, they must first be honest with us.
Bennie Thompson
Politician · American · b. 1948
Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
Samuel Johnson
Author · English · 1709 – 1784
History keeps her secrets longer than most of us. But she has one secret that I will reveal to you tonight in the greatest confidence. Sometimes there are no winners at all. And sometimes nobody needs to lose.
John Le Carre
Writer · English · b. 1931
You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
Rosalynn Carter
First Lady · American · b. 1927
I believe that the confidence of Hungary in me is not shaken by misfortune nor broken by my calumniators.
Lajos Kossuth
Lawyer · Hungarian · 1802 – 1894
The usual channels of university studies or secretarial work did not appeal to me. I cherished difficult dreams through confidence in myself.
Ella Maillart
Writer · Swiss · 1903 – 1997
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
Charles Darwin
Scientist · English · 1809 – 1882
The monitors indicated that it was a credible election, I think, in an overall sense, it apparently is a free and fair election, so it's a real milestone and one of the things we can take some little confidence in.
Warren Christopher
Statesman · American · 1925 – 2011
Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.
Diane Arbus
Photographer · American · 1923 – 1971
If we want to build the Iraqis' confidence about our intentions in their country, if we want to stop adding fuel to the fire of insurgency and terrorism, we must clarify our intent.
John Conyers
Politician · American · b. 1929
I also believe that it's the right thing to do, to maintain strong consumer confidence in our food systems. And I believe that the consumer should have strong confidence in our food systems.
Ann Veneman
Public Servant · American · b. 1949
Affliction is a school of virtue; it corrects levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning.
Francis Atterbury
Politician · English · 1663 – 1732
Give me your trust and confidence, knowing that what I seek is for the good of Fiji, for the good of us all.
Josefa Iloilo
Statesman · Fijian · b. 1920
Don may yawn at the idea, which he often does, but the great thing about Don, he has confidence in me and Mike and Ed and Leslie and Steve, that we're not going go out and do stories that will put people to sleep.
Morley Safer
Journalist · Canadian · b. 1931
No one can duplicate the confidence that RSA offers after 20 years of cryptanalytic review.
Bruce Schneier
Scientist · American · b. 1963
Not only is there no need of an intermediary through whom He would want you to speak to Him, but He finds His delight in having you treat with Him personally and in all confidence.
Alphonsus Liguori
Clergyman · Italian · 1696 – 1787
Confidence is a lot of this game or any game. If you don't think you can, you won't.
Jerry West
Artist · American · b. 1938
This - the leadership of the mayor is crucial, because it is to the mayor that people will look to provide the vision, the energy, and the sense of confidence in the rebuilding and the recovery.
Marc Morial
Politician · American · b. 1958