Sentence examples for diffidence that from inspiring English sources

It was the diffidence that got to me.

But the honest diffidence that marked the first phase of his stewardship seemed a handicap later on.

"As a private secretary," Peskin told me when I asked about Mollie's letter, "Stanley-Brown demonstrated the customary diffidence that was expected of someone in his position".

From the very beginning, the Democratic effort was characterized by a hesitancy, almost a diffidence, that marked a clear contrast to the approach of their adversaries".

If anything, it's this diffidence that gives credence to Sayeeda Warsi's claim that the Labour government sensed "the whiff of conversion and exclusivity" behind every faith-based charity.

His supporters were delighted by what they saw as his candor, yet some were troubled by the diffidence that marked his public persona.

Although she and the band regularly played these songs on tour, they're loose and deliberately wispy, sung with a diffidence suggesting that not even Cat Power is sure where her wanderings lead.

There is also a diffidence about Lillian that makes her the right mistress for this ladykilling but secretly gay man.

At its weakest, Kylesa sounds like a thinned-out kind of sacred music, a band projecting loud, smart diffidence, but one that still hasn't found its center.

(As a Briton, I declare an interest in modesty, diffidence, deference — qualities that exist only in the rose glow of the English memory).

Some analysts blame the government's weak responses on an attitude of diffidence toward communities that most French officials and middle- and upper-class residents never see.