Can impudence ever be a good quality? why or why not?

Yes, impudence can sometimes be a good quality.  Impudence can be good for holding your ground in a tough situation, where someone weak may give in and give everything to someone, where someone stronger with the ability to be impudent can defend themselves, which can save lives.
You can also think of rebellion, as sometimes rebellion is a good thing.  If one does not show respect to a corrupt leader, it may inspire others to fight out against it.

Definition of impudent1: obsolete:  lacking modesty2:  marked by contemptuous or cocky boldness or disregard of others:  insolentIn my opinion, no, impudence can never be a good quality. Cocky boldness shows overconfidence, in which someone could get hurt psychically or emotionally. For example, a biker that doesn't wear a helmet claiming that he is in no need for one because of his skill, but what if they fall and hurt their head in a life threatening way? They wouldn't have their helmet on to protect their head, hence they got seriously hurt because they were cocky. And when someone shows impudence, that means they disregard others. Disregarding others can be self-damaging and damaging to others, for example, a worker at an office meeting could talk for an excessive amount of time and not have any consideration of his coworkers, wasting planned out time where they could've been discussing business. I hope this answer has helped you, and I tried to provide and explain the examples the best I could. Good luck on your assignment. 

The authors choice of words and language