Oh, How This Resonates with Me

Looking back, in an effort to see myself as I was in those days, I am afraid I was not a very friendly or agreeable young man. I was carrying a chip on my shoulder and daring the whole world to knock it off. And the reason I so often took a high tone with people who, it seemed to me, doubted my ability to do the thing I wanted to do, was that, inwardly, I was by no means sure I could do it myself. It was a form of whistling to keep one's courage up.

Inside, I was full of the disdainful scorn of the small and precious snob.

I had not yet learned that one cannot really be superior without humility and tolerance and human understanding.- Thomas Wolfe.