"This sense of power is the highest and best of pleasures when the belief on which it is founded is a true belief, and has been fairly earned by investigation"

The pleasure derived from a sense of power is not merely an arbitrary or selfish feeling, but rather originates from the alignment between confidence and substantive achievement. William Kingdon Clifford draws a distinction between baseless self-assurance and the genuine satisfaction that comes from knowledge honestly pursued and earned. Human beings naturally seek influence over the world around them; the awareness of having a reliable understanding or mastery of a subject leads to a profound sense of agency. That feeling, Clifford contends, only reaches its highest form when it rests upon a "true belief", one rigorously tested and confirmed through careful inquiry.

Clifford’s perspective suggests that intellectual fulfillment is tied closely to integrity. Power based on ignorance or deception is hollow; it may inspire a fleeting sense of triumph, but it cannot provide lasting or meaningful satisfaction. When belief has been forged through earnest effort and honest investigation, it becomes an earned reward, bestowing not only confidence but also the well-founded pleasure of having participated actively in the search for truth. The process of investigation itself is transformative: it disciplines the mind, refines judgment, and deepens understanding.

Such pleasure transcends mere intellectual vanity. It represents the harmonization of belief with reality, a meeting point of effort and outcome. The implication is that ethical and epistemic responsibility, ensuring our beliefs are justified, elevates personal satisfaction to its most authentic form. The journey of investigation, with all its labor and uncertainty, ultimately brings about a kind of power that is both principled and profound. Instead of mere wishful thinking or unexamined conviction, the individual who has honestly strived and succeeded possesses a pleasure that is not easily shaken by doubt or circumstance. Clifford elevates this earned sense of power as the noblest that one can experience, rooted firmly in both the pursuit and possession of truth.