quotations about courage
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear.
MARK TWAIN
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.
VITTORIO ALFIERE
Oreste
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.
HARPER LEE
To Kill a Mockingbird
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR
"Serenity Prayer"
Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
attributed, The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Society and Solitude
I shall really be very unhappy unless you give me the sort of courage that makes one forget he is afraid.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
ANDRE GIDE
attributed, Life Magazine, September 17, 1971
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
NELSON MANDELA
Autobiography
When you jump across a canyon, cautious small steps and vacillation won't work. Sometimes you just have to go for it.
RICK WARREN
Ladies' Home Journal, Oct. 2008
Courage is the standing army of the soul which keeps it from conquest, pillage, and slavery.
HENRY VAN DYKE
"Courage,", Counsels by the Way
It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. It is when we all play safe that fatality will lead us to our doom. It is in the dark shade of courage alone that the spell can be broken.
DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD
Servant of Peace: A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations
Cowards die many times before their deaths
The valiant never taste of death but once.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Julius Caesar
That man who has never been in danger cannot answer for his courage.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.
BILLY GRAHAM
Reader's Digest, Jul. 1964
When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.
PAULO COELHO
The Devil and Miss Prym
Fortune favors the brave.
TERENCE
Phormio
The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
Great Speeches of Col. R. G. Ingersoll
One man with courage makes a majority.
HORACE
Carmina
The onward march of the human race requires that the heights around it constantly blaze with noble lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history and form one of man's guiding lights.
VICTOR HUGO
Les Misérables