The valor that struggles is better than the weakness that endures.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
Go on and increase in valor for this is the path to immortality.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.
—Harold Kushner (b.1935) American Jewish Religious Leader, Priest
We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.
—Barbara De Angelis (b.1951) American Self-Help Author
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
It takes guts to get out of the ruts.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
Keep courage. Whatever you do, do not feel sorry for yourself. You will win in a great age of opportunity.
—Richard L. Evans (1906–71) American Mormon Religions Leader
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
Stand up to crises. Don’t let them throw you! Fight to stay calm… even surmount the crisis completely and turn it into an opportunity. Refuse to renounce your self-image. No matter what happens, you must keep your good opinion of yourself. No matter what happens, you must hold your past successes in your imagination, ready for showing in the motion picture screen of your mind. No matter what happens, no matter what you lose, no matter what failures you must endure, you must keep faith in yourself. Then you can stand up to crises, with calm and courage, refusing to buckle; then you will not fall through the floor. You will be able to support yourself.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
Is he alone who has courage on his right hand and faith on his left hand?
—Charles Lindbergh (1902–74) American Aviator, Inventor, Conservationist
A timid person is frightened before a danger; a coward during the time; and a courageous person afterward.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Heroism, the Caucasian mountaineers say, is endurance for one moment more.
—George F. Kennan (1904–2005) American Writer, Diplomat
Women and men of retiring timidity are cowardly only in dangers which affect themselves, but are the first to rescue when others are endangered.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
No fact of human nature is more characteristic that its willingness to live on a chance.
—Unknown
One who lacks courage to start has already finished
—Indian Proverb
You are merely not feeling equal to the tasks before you.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
You have to be tough.
—Mike Ditka (b.1939) American Sportsperson
He who dies before many witnesses always does so with courage.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
It is wonderful what strength and boldness of purpose and energy will come from the feeling that we are in the way of duty.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
What a new face courage puts on everything!
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
What you RESIST, PERSISTS. If you take ownership and deal with things that are bothering you, then, in the very process of dealing with them they very often will go away.
—Indian Proverb
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 is spelled I-N-T-E-G-R-I-T-Y.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit.
—Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese Samurai Warrior, Artist
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less than a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures—and that is the basis of all morality.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Courage leads to heaven; fear leads to death.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Who dares do all that may become a man, and dares no more, he is a man indeed.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after eating one peanut.
—Channing Pollock (1880–1946)
American Playwright, Critic
If we listened to our intellect we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go in business because we’d be cynical: It’s gonna go wrong. Or She’s going to hurt me. Or, I’ve had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore … Well, that’s nonsense. You’re going to miss life. You’ve got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Fortune can take away riches, but not courage.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
Some one praising a man for his fool hardy bravery, Cato, the elder, said, “There is a wide difference between true courage and a mere contempt of life.”
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
But you be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
The French courage proceeds from vanity
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
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
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
—Unknown
It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist, Diplomat, Elected Rep
There’s no substitute for guts.
—Bear Bryant (1913–83) American Sportsperson
Courage and conviction are powerful weapons against an enemy who depends only on fists or guns. Animals know when you are afraid; a coward knows when you are not.
—David Seabury (1885–1960) American Psychologist
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
Lean into the sharp points and fully experience them. The essence of bravery is being without self-deception. Wisdom is inherent in (understanding) emotions.
—Pema Chodron (b.1936) American Buddhist Nun
At the bottom of not a little of the bravery that appears in the world, there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they have not the courage to face public opinion.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
As for courage and will—we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead.
—Andre Norton (1912–2005) American Author of Science Fiction, Fantasy
It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.
—Unknown
Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
I would define true courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.
—William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–91) American Military Leader, Businessperson, Educator