Ability hits the mark where presumption over-shoots and diffidence falls short. From LearnThat.org. [Nicholas of Cusa (c.1401-1464).]
So my diffidence about writing will be easily understood, I am sure. From Wordnik.com. [A Yeoman's Letters Third Edition] Reference
Some were put off by what they termed his diffidence, his driving ambition and perfectionism. From Wordnik.com. [The Do-or-Die Men] Reference
But there was also a certain diffidence about coming once again to the Empire Club, for I would think the 11th or 12th time. From Wordnik.com. [Winning Without War] Reference
I differ with great diffidence from the learned Baron whose Oriental reading was extensive; but the tale does not seem to justify his explanations. From Wordnik.com. [The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night] Reference
By contrast, Rudy Giuliani expressed a kind of diffidence towards his audiences. From Wordnik.com. [Decision Day] Reference
“I beg your pardon, sir,” he said to my guardian with a manly kind of diffidence. From Wordnik.com. [Bleak House] Reference
At this point Wanhope hesitated with a kind of diffidence that was rather charming in him. From Wordnik.com. [Questionable Shapes] Reference
They had in common that personal diffidence which is one of the phases of pride, and which proves so fruitful a source of misunderstandings. From Wordnik.com. [The Emancipated] Reference
"I beg your pardon, sir," he said to my guardian with a manly kind of diffidence, "but you did me the honour to mention the young lady's name --". From Wordnik.com. [Bleak House]
Like a sensible man he complied at once, without affecting that air of false diffidence which is so common among modern songsters and story-tellers. From Wordnik.com. [Erling the Bold] Reference
Abraham, according to the inferior portion of his soul spoke words testifying in him a kind of diffidence when the angel announced unto him the happy tidings of a son. From Wordnik.com. [Treatise on the Love of God] Reference
Women from their youth, they have treated their mother with a kind of diffidence, dissembling at an age when the only danger to be feared should be an excessive confidence. From Wordnik.com. [Serious Hours of a Young Lady] Reference
Young evangelicals reflect their pastors 'diffidence. From Wordnik.com. [Evangelicals Are Crucial to Winning the 2008 Election] Reference
I see my own diffidence, post-publication, and I am dismayed. From Wordnik.com. [Steven Polansky: The Subject is Cloning] Reference
Was supporting the Iraq war excessive diffidence on Britain's part?. From Wordnik.com. [An interview with Nick Clegg, Britain's deputy prime minister] Reference
The Texan's expression was properly contrite; his voice all diffidence. From Wordnik.com. [Ride Proud, Rebel!] Reference
There was a kind of long headed caution in his diffidence with regard to the future. From Wordnik.com. [Men of Affairs] Reference
She received his approaches as a matter-of-course, without diffidence, without a blush. From Wordnik.com. [Monte-Cristo's Daughter] Reference
His craving to know is poured into the plays; in person he never breaks his cool diffidence. From Wordnik.com. [Mind Over Matter] Reference
His diffidence is rooted in his political upbringing in the '50s, a pre-ideological age of consensus. From Wordnik.com. [Dole's Dilemma] Reference
I can not disguise the diffidence with which I am about to enter on the discharge of my official duties. From Wordnik.com. [US Presidential Inaugural Addresses] Reference
Washington, noticing her agitation, and supposing it to arise from diffidence, kindly endeavored to re-assure her. From Wordnik.com. [Woman on the American Frontier] Reference
Though tremendously in awe of the impecunious and futile Joel, Mary felt no sense of diffidence where the efficient. From Wordnik.com. [Other People's Business The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale] Reference
It's no wonder, since Nev, with his dark hair and eyes and boyish diffidence, might as well be called Mr. Adorable. From Wordnik.com. ['Catfish': A Great Story Of Isolation And Connection] Reference
Thus the empperor writes to his old friend, who had shown some diffidence in seeking an interview: (1) 'To MY MASTER. From Wordnik.com. [Meditations] Reference
The third, which one puts forward with diffidence, is that somebody, somewhere, somehow, sometime must do a little work. From Wordnik.com. [Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 15, 1914] Reference
If anything, Putin's diffidence toward his fans-so unlike that of predecessor Boris Yeltsin-only reinforces the impression. From Wordnik.com. [Russian Road Trip] Reference
Recalling that moment last week during a break at the sound studio, Altman said, with deceptive diffidence, "Well, I'm alive.". From Wordnik.com. [The Player Returns] Reference
There is little of the poetry of first-love, and little of the coyness and shrinking diffidence which characterize the first attachment. From Wordnik.com. [Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners A Complete Sexual Science and a Guide to Purity and Physical Manhood, Advice To Maiden, Wife, And Mother, Love, Courtship, And Marriage] Reference
But he's strangely silent on matters of unity or a European military -- a revealing diffidence, given the clear and present danger posed by September 11. From Wordnik.com. [Founding Fathers] Reference
Over the past 20 years the prince has overcome his diffidence to emerge as a champion of unfashionable causes and to challenge a host of vested interests. From Wordnik.com. [The Private Prince] Reference
Shyness boils up inside him and breaks over his features in great waves; he packs every gesture with diffidence until he practically makes his ears droop. From Wordnik.com. [A Groundhog Has His Day] Reference
These criticisms are written with unaffected diffidence; but it is only by studying the campaigns of great commanders that the art of war can be illustrated. From Wordnik.com. [Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War] Reference
Honour forbade the smallest hint at the strange position in which he found himself; diffidence held him back from writing the words his heart was crying to her. From Wordnik.com. [Antony Gray,—Gardener] Reference
Colonel Gilmore, who has the diffidence of Major Gahagan, has also the engaging artlessness which lends so great a charm to the personal narrative of Mr. Barry Lyndon. From Wordnik.com. [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866] Reference
The Doctor ate no breakfast; but came to the conclusion that he must see her again, and that as soon as possible; his earnestness and anxiety conquered his diffidence. From Wordnik.com. [A Bachelor's Dream] Reference
Without warning, her old-time diffidence settled down upon her like an enveloping cloak, and her one object was to slip away as quickly and as unobtrusively as possible. From Wordnik.com. [Marjorie Dean High School Sophomore] Reference
Yet notice: the dominant political conversation at the moment contrasts the supposed white working-class diffidence toward Obama against overwhelming black support for him. From Wordnik.com. [See the Brown in Us] Reference
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