quotations about courage
The courage with which we have met past dangers is often our best security in the present.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles,", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Many people wrongly exclude fear from the definition of courage, believing that courage is the absence of fear. Every time such people feel afraid, they assume that they aren't courageous. The reality, though, is that courage is fearful. When we are acting courageously, we are, most typically, very afraid. But we don't allow the fear we're carrying to stop us. Instead, we press on. This is the signature feature of courage: to carry on despite being fearful. Fear, thus, is an essential element in the definition of courage. You can't be courageous unless you are afraid.
BILL TREASURER
Courage Goes to Work
Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, Women Know Everything!
Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing.
GEORGE ELIOT
Janet's Repentance
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
KARLE WILSON BAKER
Dreamers on Horseback
Everyone became brave from excess of terror.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Salammbo
Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.
J.M. BARRIE
speech, May 3, 1922
The skin of the coward changes color all the time,
he can't get a grip on himself, he can't sit still,
he squats and rocks, shifting his weight from foot to foot,
his heart racing, pounding inside the fellow's ribs,
his teeth chattering -- he dreads some grisly death.
But the skin of the brave soldier never blanches.
HOMER
The Iliad
Courage leads starward, fear toward death.
SENECA
Hercules Oetaeus
'Tis not too late to-morrow to be brave.
JOHN ARMSTRONG
The Art of Preserving Health
Courage in danger is half the battle.
PLAUTUS
Pseudolus
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Macbeth
Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."
DEBORAH COLLINS
This Is Not the Life I Ordered
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Winston Churchill's Great Quotation Book: From Alamein to Zest for Life
I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.
ERIC ROTH
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Courage is being scared to death -- and saddling up anyway.
JOHN WAYNE
Reader's Digest, 1986
True courage…has so little to do with Anger, that there lies always the strongest Suspicion against it, where this Passion is highest. The true Courage is the 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, pleasant, and free. Rage, we know, can make a Coward forget himself and fight. But what is done in Fury, or Anger, can never be plac'd to the account of Courage.
ANTHONY ASHLEY-COOPER
Characteristics of Men
Walk on with courage and bravery. Go on working to improve humankind and establish the Path of Truth.
HAIDAKHAN BABAJI
The Teachings of Babaji
Courage is caution overcome.
LYMAN ABBOTT
The Theology of an Evolutionist
Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
MAYA ANGELOU
USA Today, Mar. 5, 1988