Overconfident Quotes & Sayings

Political columnists and sports pundits are rewarded for being overconfident. — Daniel Kahneman

Many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. They apparently find cognitive effort at least mildly unpleasant and avoid it as much as possible. — Daniel Kahneman

He's spent his formative years surrounded by men incapable of restraint when it comes to flirting outrageously with their wives. Each one of them ... is a cocky, arrogant, overconfident bugger." She grinned. "But you won't find men who are more loyal or loving to their wives." Her expression turned serious. "We've all been through a lot. As has Cole. Like us, he knows what's important. And he's been deeply influenced by the men in his life. — Samantha Young

What you need to remember, with these guys, is that they don't know they're con men. They're wildly overconfident. Omnipotence, omniscience
that's part of the mythology that surrounds the Special Forces ... Your guy can walk in the door and promise training in something he personally doesn't know how to do, and not even realize he's bullshitting about his own capabilities. It's a special kind of gullibility ... — William Gibson

I moved to the counter. A note was propped on the register. Welcome home, Ms. Lane. Arrogant, overconfident jackass. — Karen Marie Moning

And it is natural for System 1 to generate overconfident judgments, because confidence, as we have seen, is determined by the coherence of the best story you can tell from the evidence at hand. Be warned: your intuitions will deliver predictions that are too extreme and you will be inclined to put far too much faith in them. — Daniel Kahneman

There is something to be said about a guy who is attractive and doesn't know it. I hate men who are overconfident. — Kiele Sanchez

Speaking as one of your minions," Larry called from the back seat, "are you sure you're not the one who's overconfident?" Jean-Claude glanced back at him. "Serephina was centuries old when I met her. The limit of a vampire's powers is well established after two or three centuries. I know her limits, Lawrence." "Stop calling me Lawrence. The name's Larry." Jean-Claude sighed. "You have trained him well." "He came that way," I said. "Pity." Jean-Claude — Laurell K. Hamilton

What basically happens is that when a company becomes great, and I'm being a bit rude here, people think they're some kind of genius. So now we can move into all sorts of other businesses because the net bottom line is, it's because we're just geniuses. They become overconfident and expand too far. — Jorgen Vig Knudstorp

Imagine yourself winning?.. Wouldn't that make you overconfident?'
'Not at all... It's called "positive visualisation", like being a runner: see yourself making it across the finish line, you pace yourself better, run a better race too. See yourself winning at poker, you make the winning calls. See yourself as a loser, you've not got the self-belief or determination to play well, no matter how much money you gamble.'
Chester - to Jennifer
I was shocked to hear the words of the Love Professor echoed by Chester: like yourself and you'll win; think you're a loser, and sure enough you'll end up losing. — Jennifer Cox

I think the people who've been the most overconfident in our business in the last decade have been the people that called themselves risk managers. — Richard Thaler

A forecaster should almost never ignore data, especially when she is studying rare events like recessions or presidential elections, about which there isn't very much data to begin with. Ignoring data is often a tip-off that the forecaster is overconfident, or is overfitting her model - that she is interested in showing off rather than trying to be accurate. — Nate Silver

Let's not be overconfident, we still have to count the votes. — Harold Washington

You should not be too proud and accept help when it is offered, Lenora. Being overconfident will lead to your defeat if not careful — James Terzian

Twentysomethings who don't feel anxious and incompetent at work are usually overconfident or underemployed. — Meg Jay

Does everyone feel this way? When I was young, I was perpetually overconfident or insecure. Either I felt completely useless, unattractive, and worthless, or that I was pretty much a success, and everything I did was bound to succeed. When I was confident, I could overcome the hardest challenges. But all it took was the smallest setback for me to be sure that I was utterly worthless. Regaining my self-confidence had nothing to do with success ... whether I experienced it as a failure or triumph was utterly dependent on my mood. — Bernhard Schlink

But I can tell you this, Mr. James, I refuse to be treated with disrespect."
"Disrespect?" Burnett growled.
And then everything went to hell.
Burnett and Hayden exchanged colourful verbal blows. According to Hayden, Burnett was a prick, and according to Burnett, Hayden was an overconfident jerk who had lied.
She didn't know if she felt confident the tension wouldn't elevate to physical blows, or if she was simply too tired to care anymore. If they broke each other's noses, so be it. — C.C. Hunter

I really don't (stay calm) all the time. I just try to. Part of not just racing but in life, I try not to let the highs be too high and the lows be too low. I try to stay somewhere right in the middle. In racing it's not always easy to do. You can get too excited or overconfident when things are going good and it's easy to get too far in the ditch when things are going bad. — Matt Kenseth

I was the one that in a very overconfident immigrant way thought I knew exactly how to raise my kids. My husband was much more typical. He had a lot of anxiety; he didn't think he knew all the right choices. And, I was the one willing to put in the hours. — Amy Chua

overconfident individuals achieved higher social status, respect, and influence in groups. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Arben was large. Strong. Armed. And these, his strengths, were his greatest weaknesses.
Brute force and the ability to control others through fear and intimidation made men lazy. Overconfident. Slow.
She would never be as fast as a bullet, but in close contact, would always be faster than the hand that drew the gun. Speed was life. Speed was survival. Speed born from the will to live, from the necessity of staying one move ahead, speed carved into her psyche one sadistic knife slice after another. That which hadn't killed her had made her faster. — Taylor Stevens

She'd been feeling pleased with a couple of moves, had thought she was gaining the upper hand. But she'd been overconfident. She'd failed to notice his stealthy approach until he turned the tables on her with a move she hadn't expected and now she was fighting for her life. — Emily Arden

I do not think that I am ever overconfident. I am merely wholly confident, and I maintain that there is all the difference in the world there. — Edgar Rice Burroughs

The greatest triumph of Shaytan is the illusion that you are in control. He lurks on the forking paths, lying in wait for those who become overconfident and lose their way. — G. Willow Wilson

If we are to understand anything of the human mind we must approach the people of the past with humility rather than an overconfident superiority. — Anthony Terence Quincey Stewart

The nerves are good ... they keep you on point and they keep you not getting overconfident. — Myles Jury

They were frisky, eager and exuberant, and they had all been friends in the States. They were plainly unthinkable. They were noisy, overconfident, empty-headed kids of twenty-one. They had gone to college and were engaged to pretty, clean girls whose pictures were already standing on the rough cement mantelpiece of Orr's fireplace. They had ridden in speedboats and played tennis. They had been horseback riding. One had once been to bed with an older woman. They knew the same poeple in different parts of the country and had gone to school with each other's cousins. — Joseph Heller

In sum, economists (and those who listened to them) became overconfident in their preferred models of the moment: markets are efficient, financial innovation improves the risk-return trade-off, self-regulation works best, and government intervention is ineffective and harmful. They forgot about the other models. There was too much Fama, too little Shiller. The economics of the profession may have been fine, but evidently there was trouble with its psychology and sociology. — Dani Rodrik

He was overconfident", she told him. "And I won so the gods must have thought I was right. Otherwise they'd have made me lose. You know how trial by combat works."
"You won because you were good" he corrected her. "I find it hard to believe the gods sit forever about the Divine Realms betting on jousts and trials by combat. — Tamora Pierce

Never be afraid to fail. Failure is only a stepping stone to improvement. Never be overconfident because that will block your improvement. — Tony Jaa

I am not overconfident. — Romano Prodi

People exaggerate their own skills. they are optimistic about their prospects and overconfident about their guesses, including which managers to pick. — Richard Thaler

The bat-and-ball problem is our first encounter with an observation that will be a recurrent theme of this book: many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. — Daniel Kahneman

I have a great record against anybody right now, so it doesn't really matter who I play in the final. I'll be in there as the big favorite. But I play my best in the finals, in the important matches. That's why I'm number one. There's no secret ... I'm not overconfident, but very confident. — Roger Federer

What was I like? I had a high-pitched voice. Sounded a bit like a girl. Spoke with a Stoke accent, tremendously naive. Overconfident. Tremendously overconfident. And underconfident at the same time - really, really bad combination! Gets you places, though. — Robbie Williams

Christian may have entered the Valley of Humiliation overconfident and puffed up with false pride, but he departs with humble reliance on the Word of God and prayerful gratitude to the Lord of the Highway who has come to his aid and saved him from the Destroyer. He goes forward with his sword drawn. He has learned his lesson and now relies consciously on God's Word for protection.
5. — John Bunyan

I try to have a balance of things you like and things you don't like about a character. But once you start that, all these scripts are like, "You play the douchebag friend of Ashton Kutcher." It's all these characters that are overconfident or hyper-masculine. — Jemaine Clement

We're generally overconfident in our opinions and our impressions and judgments. — Daniel Kahneman

As a rule those who were least remarkable for intelligence showed the greater powers of survival. Such people recognized their own deficiencies and the superior intelligence of their opponnents; fearing that they might lose a debate or find themselves out-manoeuvred in intrigue by their quick-witted enemies, they boldly launched straight into action; while their opponents, overconfident in the belief that they would see what was happening in advance, and not thinking it necessary to seize by force what they could secure by policy, were the more easily destroyed because they were off their guard. 84 Certainly it was in Corcyra that — Thucydides

People tend to be overconfident in their abilities, and the most overconfident also tend to be the least competent — Steven Gacovino

Most people are overconfident about their own abilities. That is probably a good thing. But we would be horrified if a physician's aide engaged in heart surgery. — Andrew Lo

Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that's when something snaps up and bites you. — Neil Armstrong

The aim of this step is threefold: (1) to recognize and appreciate the unknown and unknowable, (2) to become sensitive to overconfident assertions of certainty in ourselves and other people, and (3) to make ourselves aware of the numinous mystery of each human being we encounter during the day. First, — Karen Armstrong

Social psychologists have found that we are overconfident, sometimes to the point of delusion, about our ability to infer what other people think, even the people who are closest to us.27 Only when we ask those people do we discover that what's obvious to us isn't obvious to them. That's why professional writers have editors. — Steven Pinker

Adolescents may be, almost simultaneously, overconfident and riddled with fear. They are afraid of their overpowering feelings, oflosing control, of helplessness, of failure. Sometimes they act bold, to counteract their imperious yearnings to remain children. They are impulsive, impetuous, moody, disagreeable, overdemanding, underappreciative. If you don't understand them, remember, they don't understand themselves most of the time. — Stella Chess

Modern society is large and complex, with institutions wielding great power over the lives of many. This is why Johnson and Fowler added a dire parting shot in their predictions. Since you are programmed to become increasingly overconfident the less you understand about any given scenario, you can expect to find the most destructive overconfidence in places that are exceedingly complicated and unpredictable. — David McRaney

When he makes mistakes, he's so focused on righting the wrong, and so overconfident about his ability to fix it all, that he loses sight of the big picture and ends up making things worse. — Jenn Bennett

Almost everyone's instinct is to be overconfident and read way too much into a hot or cold streak. — Nate Silver

An overconfident enemy is prone to carelessness. — Anthony Ryan

Early in my career I was accused of being overconfident and even cocky, but I really was confident that I had done the training and didn't see any other reason to say otherwise. — Alberto Salazar

Do not grow overconfident following a few victories. Should you not rely upon the Holy Spirit you will soon be thrown once more into a distressing experience. With holy diligence you must cultivate an attitude of dependency. — Watchman Nee

MBA students are not the only ones overconfident about their abilities. The "above average" effect is pervasive. Ninety percent of all drivers think they are above average behind the wheel, — Richard H. Thaler

In life; when you expect good to happen, the bad happens and when you see the bad coming, then comes the good'
'Never be overconfident about your expectations — Peter Perry

I'm unapologetic not because I'm strong-willed or overconfident, I'm unapologetic because this is it; this is my life. There is nothing I can do, no one I can please. I am a person with a strong sense of being, that's all. — Jean Seberg

We are busy surviving, herding, fixating on what just happened, and being overconfident! — Joel Greenblatt

People are drastically overconfident about their judgments of others. — Daniel Gilbert

Even I make mistakes." I put on my brash, overconfident face. "I know it's hard to believe - kind of surprises me myself - but I guess it has to happen. It's probably some kind of karmic way to balance out the universe. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to have one person so full of awesomeness. — Richelle Mead

It may make him overconfident. He may make foolish errors. — Christie Golden

Almost everyone is overconfident
except the people who are depressed, and they tend to be realists. — Joseph T. Hallinan

That's all I was: a terrible flirt, coquettish and amusing. I had a few plus points, which kept me in everybody's good graces: I was hardworking, honest and generous. I would never have refused anyone who wanted to peek at my answers, I was magnanimous with my candy, and I wasn't stuck-up. Would all that admiration eventually have made me overconfident? — Anne Frank

Sure I am a religious man who is also passionate about conserving the environment. But I am also a CEO, with all the bad habits and attitudes that are natural to the species ... I am still naturally self-interested, overconfident, full of pride, and eager to control a meeting as any CEO in America. Every day, I struggle with my ego. — Tom Chappell