A coward’s fear can make a coward valiant.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.
—George S. Patton (1885–1945) American Military Leader
The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
What we fear comes to pass more speedily than what we hope.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
Fear of life in one form or another is the great thing to exorcise.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
You cannot run away from a weakness. You must sometimes fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
The world belongs to those who don’t let anxiety about screwing up keep them from moving forward.
—Unknown
Fear of death is worse than dying.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
To relinquish a present good through apprehension of a future evil is in most instances unwise … from a fear which may afterwards turn out groundless, you lost the good that lay within your grasp.
—Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) Italian Historian, Political leader
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
If you knew how cowardly your enemy is, you would slap him. Bravery is knowledge of the cowardice in the enemy.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
I was afraid to write “Fear of Flying”; ergo, I had to write it. I have lived my life according to this principle: If I’m afraid of it, then I must do it.
—Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Feminist
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.
—Walter Anderson
From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
We are the carriers of health and disease – either the divine health of courage and nobility or the demonic diseases of hate and anxiety
—Joshua L. Liebman (1907–48) American Jewish Rabbi, Author
Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
A perfect faith would lift us absolutely above fear.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Every time I start a picture … I feel the same fear, the same self-doubts … and I have only one source on which I can draw, because it comes from within me.
—Federico Fellini (1920–93) Italian Filmmaker
How much have cost us the evils that never happened!
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
To hell with pleasure that’s haunted by fear.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
Fear is a fine spur.
—Irish Proverb
To tremble before anticipated evils, is to bemoan what thou hast never lost.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
While we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.
—Audre Lorde (1934–92) American Poet, Activist
Joking about death—or anything else that oppresses us—makes it less frightening.
—Allen Klein (1931–2009) American Businessperson
Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Leave a Reply