self-confidence

See Also: PRIDE, VANITY

1. The acceptance of oneself … is like falling heir to the house one was born in and has lived in all one’s life but to which, until now, one did not own the title —Jean Stafford
2. (Sit there with) all the quiet certainty of a marauding chimp —Carla Lane, line from British television sitcom, “Solo”
3. As cocksure as if he had a fistful of aces —Honoré de Balzac
4. Confidence leaking like gas all over the room —Wilfrid Sheed
5. Confidence, like the soul, never returns whence it has once departed —Publius Syrus
6. Confident as a man dialing his own telephone number —Jack Bell
7. (He would be as) confident as a married man of how the evening would turn out —Alice McDermott
8. Confident as a master baker with a cake in the oven —Elizabeth Irvin Ross
9. Feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief —William Shakespeare

   See Also: NAMES

10. Feeling power and confidence rise strongly up in her like wine filling a glass —Celia Dale
11. Felt like the cock of the walk —John Dos Passos
12. He displayed like an aura the lordly demeanor of a man who not only had dined on success throughout his lifetime but also had been born to it —Joseph Heller
13. I feel like a dime among pennies —Fiorello H. La Guardia, Village Voice, November 21, 1968

    The former New York City mayor responded thus when asked how it felt to be smallest man in a group.

    See Also: SMALLNESS

14. I’m like a cat. Throw me up in the air and I’ll always land on my feet —Bette Davis, quoted in Rex Reed interview

    See Also: SUCCESS/FAILURE

15. Pitching is a rollercoaster ride through the land of confidence —Ron Darling, New York Mets pitcher, New York Times/Sports of the Times, August 3, 1986

    See Also: BASEBALL

16. (The children) roamed through the neighborhood like confident landlords —Alice Mc Dermott
17. Self-confidence like an iron bar —Stephen Vincent Benét
18. Self-confidence surrounds him like force field —William Boyd
19. She was a human duck off whose back even the most seering of words flowed like harmless rain —H. E. Bates

    A twist on the timeworn “Rolled off him/her like water off a duck’s back.”

20. Very pleased with herself … like a boa constrictor that had just enjoyed a rather large lunch —Mike Fredman
21. Walked the lane between the indifferently rowed cabins like he owned them, striding from shade into half-light as if he could halve the setting sun —Sherley Anne Williams