0 the quality of not being soft, but not completely hard:
The bed's firmness suited him.
2 the quality of being forceful and making people do what you want:
The new teacher has a reputation for firmness.
3 the quality of being certain and not likely to change
4 the quality of being fairly hard when pressed:
He liked the bed's firmness.
5 the quality of being certain and unlikely to change or be questioned:
the firmness of his claim
Akbar decided to tackle this with uncompromising firmness.
Firmness in applying international law is the best way of promoting international peace and strengthening state sovereignty.
The primary argument is that the absence of firmness in demanding justice and protecting human rights ignores the objectives of stability and prosperity.
His instincts were always for reconciliation, for charity allied with firmness.
In fact, it is insufficient for its being warrantedly believed with any degree of firmness.
The firmness of a belief, that is, the depth of one's conviction in it, does nothing to settle whether the belief is rational or founded on the evidence.
Enlightenment thinkers generally affirmed a rigid separation between life and death, viewed doubts about the firmness of these categories as superstition, and expressed little interest in the transition between them.
I doubt that these arguments are sufficient to warrant the firmness of belief involved in faith (as traditionally understood) but it doesn't follow that they have no use at all.
