If you doubt yourself, then indeed you stand on shaky ground.

The line warns that self-doubt undermines one’s stability and capacity to act: when you distrust your own judgment, every decision feels precarious, and external pressures can easily sway you. Read in an Ibsen-like key, it aligns with his recurring dramatic concern for moral courage and the cost of living without inner conviction—characters who cannot stand firmly in their own beliefs become vulnerable to compromise, manipulation, or paralysis. The metaphor of “shaky ground” suggests that confidence is not mere bravado but a foundation for ethical and practical agency; without it, even truthful or necessary actions may collapse under hesitation.