"Of course, people like self-confident types.  So much better to just go and do things and get them done without a lot of worry, so that there won't be any worries later on.  Have confidence and go do something.  Get a job, build a career, do well for yourself.  Work hard, support a family.  Chicks dig self-confidence.  For good reason.  Man knows what he wants, makes it happen.  Fun to be around.  Not a lot of self-questioning, existential feeling-lost kind of crap.  Work is work.  Play is play.  I mean, wouldn't you rather feel good and confident about what you were doing?  Makes things a whole lot easier."

"Yes, that's true, but remember, self-confident people can lead us into bad stuff.  They're so sure they're doing the right thing, and no one stands up to question it, and then boom, you have people dying in wars, environmental disasters, genocide, all because some egotistical fool can't take a look around himself and see the rest of the world.  The world's a lot more complicated than some make it out to be.  Manifest Destiny doesn't work.  Not for everyone."

"Idiots, the easily-led, those who don't think for themselves, that is who finds the self-confident so great.  Anyone with depth knows that just about everything has its ups and downs.  If you do one things, you're taking away from something else you might do.  And take a look at the human condition itself.  That's enough to make you sensitive to the needs of others.  What kind of shallow moron race would we be encouraging if we only praised and listened to the self confident?  What kind of selfish culture would descend upon us?  Where would go for respite from it?"

"Gehrig himself would go back to the dugout and cry sometimes.  Doing something well has nothing to do with self-confidence.  It's like playing the blues.  You do it because it's real to you.  The thing you do exists on its own, inside you.  Maybe it develops over time, and then it's just easy enough that you can overcome anxiety to do it.  Or it's just natural enough you don't have to think about it.  And your own relationship with the things you do is related to how you deal with other people.  You might seem shy but have perfect confidence in your own way, comfortable with yourself."


"If you really had confidence, if you really were comfortable with yourself, than you could do what people must ultimately do, which is, in a way, to succumb to the prodigal nature within.  You just have to admit that about yourself, the great weakness we all have.  And ultimately, you can't be judgmental about it.  If you really had confidence, I'm sorry...   It's true...  You'd have to fall, lose everything, become a monk... and not do any of this smugly, because you had some 'holy light,' but because you approached the human condition honestly, learning a lesson."