This is the first time I have seen this thought articulated, that we reserve a particular gratitude to those who have helped us develop confidence.  For me, they would include a number of teachers, from primary school up to post-graduate research, a village doctor who helped me through a difficult moment, friends who have believed in me, my publisher, and close family. 

Perhaps take a moment to think about those people in your own life and send them a silent word of thanks?  We all need them at one time or another. 

The special gratitude we reserve for those who have led us towards confidence in ourselves. 

Source: Seamus Heaney, Finders Keepers: Selected prose 1971-2001 (London: Faber and Faber, 2003), p. 40

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