As for mending relations with Islam, Mr Obama decided that this required some diffidence.
Building robotic traffic police and guides will make it easier for people to overcome their diffidence.
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But the desire for independence and diffidence towards outsiders also work against concentration and consolidation.
He may grow out of his diffidence, but this race seems to have come too early for him.
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And I was not entirely sure, either, that my brother had whatever it took guts or diffidence to join a cult.
It takes fearless self confidence to take the risk that our humility will be mistaken for diffidence or a deficiency in competitive fire.
This assertion has recently been used to excuse the UN's diffidence to (or, more accurately, its contemptuous undermining of) Washington's policies towards Iraq.
Ms. Watson brings a sterling authority to the role of the unimposing Janet, a mix of unassuming diffidence and ambition she'd volunteered for this service.
Ms Merkel's diffidence arises from history: her country's and her own.
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Yet her diffidence and down-to-earthness was peculiarly suited to her country.
What may have been typical Japanese expressions of diffidence and unease with forthright action may have allowed this Chinese interpretation, even if it was a stretch at the time.
But the army's diffidence is increasingly being taken as evidence that, despite Mr Musharraf's protestations to the contrary, Pakistan never abandoned its policy of harbouring terrorists at home and sponsoring them abroad.
At home Mr Obama's dangerous diffidence explains why the health bill that now seems likely to pass, while on balance a good thing rather than a bad one, is still a big disappointment.
My question, remarkably, induces in him some diffidence.
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For once, Euro-diffidence is not one of them.
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The Islamic challenge consists of two components: on the one hand, an indigenous population's withering Christian faith, inadequate birthrate, and cultural diffidence, and on the other an influx of devout, prolific, and culturally assertive Muslim immigrants.
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What surprised me most was the timidity and diffidence, and maladroitness, of the young men, who basically huddled in a corner by themselves and stared at their shoes, while the young women were waiting to be approached.
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