All brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
A warrior chooses a path with heart, any path with heart, and follows it; and then he rejoices and laughs. He knows because he sees that his life will be over altogether too soon. He sees that nothing is more important than anything else.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Pugnacity is a form of courage, but a very bad form.
—Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Noah was a brave man to sail in a wooden boat with two termites.
—Indian Proverb
It is impossible to win the race unless you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.
—Richard DeVos (1926–2018) American Businessman, Philanthropist
My message to you is: Be courageous! I have lived a long time. I have seen history repeat itself again and again. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has come out stronger and more prosperous. Be as brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Courage is grace under pressure.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
We sometimes from dreams pick up some hint worth improving by … reflection.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
True courage is cool and calm.—The bravest of men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene and free.
—Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–83) British Statesman
Though the practice of chivalry fell even more sadly short of its theoretic standard than practice generally falls below theory, it remains one of the most precious monuments of the moral history of our race, as a remarkable instance of a concerted and organized attempt by a most disorganized and distracted society, to raise up and carry into practice a moral ideal greatly in advance of its social condition and institutions; so much so as to have been completely frustrated in the main object, yet never entirely inefficacious, and which has left a most sensible, and for the most part a highly valuable impress on the ideas and feelings of all subsequent times.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
A strong man and a waterfall always channel their own path.
—Unknown
The bravest are the most tender; the loving are the daring.
—Bayard Taylor (1825–78) American Poet, Literary Critic, Translator, Translator
The brave man is not he who feels no fear, for that were stupid and irrational; but he whose noble soul subdues its fear, and bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.
—Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) Scottish Playwright, Poet
The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
You are under the unfortunate delusion that simply because you run away from danger, you have no courage. You’re confusing courage with wisdom.
—Unknown
Discretion is the better part of valour.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval.
—Thomas S. Monson (b.1927) American Mormon Religious Leader
Fortune can take away riches, but not courage.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
My advice to you, if you should ever be in a hold-up, is to line up with the cowards and save your bravery for an occasion when it may be of some benefit to you.
—O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) (1862–1910) American Writer of Short Stories
Nothing recommends a man to the female mind than courage.
—Indian Proverb
There’s no substitute for guts.
—Bear Bryant (1913–83) American Sportsperson
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward, it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word. Consider the flea!-incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage. Whether you are asleep or awake he will attack you, caring nothing for the fact that in bulk and strength you are to him as are the massed armies of the earth to a sucking child; he lives both day and night and all days and nights in the very lap of peril and the immediate presence of death, and yet is no more afraid than is the man who walks the streets of a city that was threatened by an earthquake ten centuries before. When we speak of Clive, Nelson, and Putnam as men who didn’t know what fear was,” we ought always to add the flea-and put him at the head of the procession.”
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Courage follows action.
—Mack R. Douglas
It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French Author