Fear is faith that it won’t work out.
—Unknown
Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
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
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
Now is the age of anxiety.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster’s whim and the purest ideal
—Ingrid Bergman (1915–82) Swedish Actor
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Fear is only an illusion. It is the illusion that creates the feeling of separateness—the false sense of isolation that exists only in your imagination.
—Jeraldine Saunders (1923–2019) American Writer, Television Personality
A fool without fear is sometimes wiser than an angel with fear.
—Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor (1879–1964) American-born British Politician
Most of the fear that spoils our life comes from attacking difficulties before we get them.
—Frank Hall Crane (1873–1948) American Stage and Film Actor, Director
He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
A good life fears not life nor death.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Nothing can be meaner than the anxiety to live on, to live on anyhow and in any shape; a spirit with any honor is not willing to live except in its own way, and a spirit with any wisdom is not over-eager to live at all.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Why should a man fear since chance is all in all for him, and he can clearly fore-know nothing’? Best to lightly live as one can, unthinking.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
We poison our lives with fear of burglary and shipwreck, and the house is never burgled, and the ship never goes down.
—Jean Anouilh (1910–87) French Dramatist
All we are asked to bear we can bear. That is a law of the spiritual life. The only hindrance to the working of this law, as of all benign laws, is fear.
—Elizabeth Goudge (1900–84) English Novelist
To live your life in the fear of losing it is to lose the point of life.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a specter through the heart, slash off its spectral head, take it by its spectral throat?
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
I’m just suggesting that when you’re faced with fear and anxiety, don’t medicate. Meditate instead.
—Russell Simmons (b.1957) American Music Promoter
He that is afraid to shake the dice will never throw a six.
—Chinese Proverb
If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. nothing in the paper today , we sigh.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
Fear makes us feel our humanity.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Often I have found that the one thing that can save is the thing which appears most to threaten … one has to go down into what one most fears and in that process … comes a saving flicker of light and energy that, even if it does not produce the courage of a hero, at any rate enables a trembling mortal to take one step further.
—Laurens van der Post (1906–96) South African-born British Political leader, Author, Educator, Journalist, Humanitarian
Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen.
—Pliny the Younger (c.61–c.112 CE) Roman Senator, Writer
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
Being scared can keep a man from getting killed and often makes a better fighter of him.
—Louis L’Amour (1908–88) American Novelist, Short-story Writer