Unshakable faith in oneself is as rare as implicit faith in some other person. Few have developed it to the degree that ensures effective and constructive control of oneself. In most persons faith in oneself is always being challenged and undone by the constant experience of one’s own frailties and failings, which often prove to be unyielding, even when one knows what is right. Self-confidence, which is thus in perpetual danger of being shattered, can be securely established only when the individual has before him the vision of a living example of Perfection, and has
faith in it.
– Discourses 7th Ed. p366