Perhaps a better understanding of the nature of genuine confidence may be had from analyzing an aspect of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, in which he discusses the concept of virtue.
According to Aristotle, a virtue exists as the mean between two extremes. For instance, temperance would be defined as the mean between the deficiency and excess of a pleasure, such as (say) consuming alcohol. Though there is nothing wrong with consuming alcohol in itself, the excess—in Aristotle's view—would be drunkenness, while the deficiency would be abstaining from alcohol consumption altogether. Thus, the virtue of temperance is the center point, the mean, or the “balance,” between two extremes (drunkenness and abstinence) of “the pleasure of consuming alcohol.”
In the same way, genuine confidence can also be understood as the mean between two extremes. Namely, between an extreme state of pride and an extreme state of humility. I use the phrase “an extreme state of” to illustrate the severity of that which I am referring. An extreme state of pride, for example, would be an attitude characterized by arrogance, vanity, or conceit. i.e., a general feeling of superiority over one's contemporaries. On the other hand, an extreme state of humility would be an attitude of inferiority or worthlessness in comparison to others. It naturally follows that genuine confidence is the mean or “balance” between these two extremes.
Without well ordered self-love (pride) a person becomes a worm. But by the same token, without an awareness of one's limits and shortcomings (humility), a person becomes an egomaniac. Neither extreme is desirable in any form whatsoever.
As such, it is the mean or “balance” which our sights should be set upon.
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