Self Confidence/Ego Disease/Pride
Appreciation (Recognition of Worth)
Perfection/ Self Delusion:

The following quotes illustrate the topic's ambiguity.  Use these to establish the scope of your topic--to begin to specify the subtopics that verbalize various differing opinions on the same issue--to begin to develop a guide to your reading.
"This above all to thine own self be true." Hamlet by William Shakespeare

"We never know the worth of water 'til the well is dry."        English Proverb

Bacon, Francis.  "Of Nobility."  The Essays of Francis Bacon.  Ed.  Clark
Sutherland Northrup, Ph. D.  Boston, Massachusetts:  Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1936.  Pages 32-34.
Barthelme, Donald.  "A City of Churches."  The Best American Short  Stories 1973. Ed. Martha Foley.  Boston, MA:  Houghton Mifflin                 Company, 1973. Pages 1-5.
Didion, Joan.  "Phi Beta Kappa Essay."  The College Board English  Literature Advanced Placement Examination.  1991.
Downs, Hugh.  "Fifty Years of Broadcasting." Perspectives.  Atlanta, GA:
Turner Publishing, 1995.  Pages 15-20.
Eisenhower, Dwight D.  "Quality of America's Fighting Men."
Golding, William.  Lord of the Flies.
Goodman, Ellen.  "The Company Man." The College Board Advanced  Placement Examination.  1992.
Mairs, Nancy.  "I am a cripple. . . ."  The College Board Advanced  Placement Examination. 1992.
McCourt, Frank.  Angela's Ashes.  New York:  Scribner, 1996.
McPhearson, James M.  Marching Towards Freedom.
Munro, Alice.  "Friend of My Youth."  The Best American Short Stories1991.  Ed. Alice Adams.  Boston, MA:  Houghton Mifflin                  Company, 1991.            
Puller, Lewis B.  Fortunate Son.  New York:  Grove Weidenfeld, 1991.
Reagan, Ronald.  "Farewell Address."  Representative American Speeches  1988-89. Ed.  Owen Peterson.  New York, NY:  H.W. Wilson                 Company, 1989.  Pages 8-18.
Stravinsky, Igor.  "Conducting."  The College Board Advanced Placement  Examination.  1991.
Thoreau, Henry David.  Walden and Civil Disobedience.  New York:
New American Library, 1980.
Twain, Mark.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Wills, Garry.  Certain Trumpets:  The Call of Leaders.  New York:  Simon  and  Schuster, 1994.
Wolff, Tobias.  "Sister."  Prize Stories 1985.  Ed. William
Abrahams.  New York:  Double Day Dell Publishing Group, 1985.