Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
To be courageous requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, its an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to all of us.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Courage is the footstool of the Virtues, upon which they stand.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Courage, contrary to popular belief, is not the absence of fear. Courage is the wisdom to act in spite of fear.
—John-Roger, Peter McWilliams
Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.
—Unknown
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
You are goodness and mercy and compassion and understanding. You are peace and joy and light. You are forgiveness and patience, strength and courage, a helper in time of need, a comforter in time of sorrow, a healer in time of injury, a teacher in times of confusion. You are the deepest wisdom and the highest truth; the greatest peace and the grandest love. You are these things. And in moments of your life you have known yourself to be these things. Choose now to know yourself as these things always.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
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
To accept whatever comes, regardless of the consequences, is to be unafraid.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
If you care about something, you have to protect it—if you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.
—John Irving (b.1942) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
I think of those who were truly great. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire’s center.
—Stephen Spender (1909–95) English Poet, Critic
Private bravery is often the price of personal victory.
—Unknown
Wealth lost is something lost, honor lost is something lost: Courage lost all is lost.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Do you have the courage for it? Do you have the love? If you have enough of one, you will develop the other.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
The fly ought to be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity, for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else, and run away even before he comes near them, the fly lights upon his very nose.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Burdens are the foundations of ease and bitter things the forerunners of pleasure.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
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
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
Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Don’t foul, don’t flinch—hit the line hard.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
It takes guts to get out of the ruts.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
Why should we honor those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The high sentiments always win in the end, the leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Many become brave when brought to bag.
—Norwegian Proverb
Noah was a brave man to sail in a wooden boat with two termites.
—Indian Proverb
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose. In this respect it’s unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we lay music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
The brave venture anything.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible—not to have run away.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
—William Hutchinson Murray (1913–96) Scottish Mountaineer
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
Wealth lost – something lost; Honor lost – much lost; Courage lost – all lost.
—German Proverb
That’s a valiant flea that dares eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Without a struggle, there can be no progress.
—Frederick Douglass (1817–95) American Abolitionist, Author, Editor, Diplomat, Political leader
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured and far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Why worry of tomorrow, tomorrow will worry of itself.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author
He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.
—Herman Melville (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
This is courage in a man: to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
—Marianne Williamson (b.1952) American Activist, Author, Lecturer