I never thought of saying to myself, I am, or I can do, so and so.

I neither estimated myself highly nor lowly: I did not estimate myself at all.

If I thought anything about myself, it was that I was rather backward in my studies, since I always found myself so, in comparison with what my father expected from me.

I assert this with confidence, though it was not the impression of various persons who saw me in my childhood.

They, as I have since found, thought me greatly and disagreeably self-conceited; probably because I was disputatious, and did not scruple to give direct contradictions to things which I heard said.
I suppose I acquired this bad habit from having been encouraged in an unusual degree to talk on matters beyond my age, and with grown persons, while I never had inculcated on me the usual respect for them.