He didn’t like himself as much as he liked liking himself. Truth be told he was not a likable sort even qualifying by some measures as a fraud and a crook having once attempted to pawn his mother’s prized spatula rumored to have been used by Ladybird Johnson before she was the first lady (only returning it after experts agreed that it was not a spatula at all but rather a broken ladle). But liking, as he did, liking himself there is little reason to dwell on all that nitpicking and handwringing when a simple act - sort of the cognitive analogue to a squat thrust - could suffice. While it may seem that liking feeling like a virtuous person should come in under the title of liking liking one’s self, that’s liking yourself as the feeling is predicated on yourself. On the contrary, liking liking yourself requires no such introspection and its onset need not track nor examine your days in any normative, comparative or qualitative way. Instead, all that’s required is a simple affirmation entirely removed from any analysis or scrutiny. Liking liking is like loving loving it needs a vehicle but any will do. So go ahead and treat yourself to some validation, you’ll be proud of yourself for having done it.