quotations about fear
Fears work into the mind like maggots in a corpse; they fester and boil and work to no good.
DAVID C. SMITH & RICHARD L. TIERNEY
The Ring of Ikribu
Fear is the enemy of logic.
FRANK SINATRA
quoted in The Way You Wear Your Hat
Fear is the brother of hate.
LARRY NIVEN
Ringworld
Fear has no brains; it is an idiot.
AMBROSE BIERCE
"The Moonlit Road"
Fear is a message--sometimes helpful, sometimes not--but often conveying critical information about our beliefs, our needs, and our relationship to the world around us.
HARRIET LERNER
Fear and Other Uninvited Guests
Sometimes fear is wholesome and rational; it is well to swing fear as a mighty battle-axe over men's heads when no other motive will move them.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
The understanding of fear cures fear.
ROBERT ANTHONY
Beyond Positive Thinking
Fear of change is a part of the state of fear man has ever lived in but out of which he has begun to escape. Civilization might be defined indeed as the steps in his escape.
ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS
Fear and Conventionality
I marvel now that it was not obvious how inextricable suffering and fear are. It was not until fear left that I noticed, slowly, how it seemed to have taken suffering with it. It took a while to figure out that (for me, anyhow) suffering is mostly caused by fear--not by the circumstances themselves, but by my response to them.
JAN FRAZIER
When Fear Falls Away
The strongest human emotion is fear. It's the essence of any good thriller that, for a little while, you believe in the boogeyman.
JOHN CARPENTER
Time, Nov. 16, 1987
Man now needs for his salvation only one thing: to open his heart to joy, and leave fear to gibber through the glimmering darkness of a forgotten past.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
New Hopes for a Changing World
Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Unpopular Essays
Throughout evolutionary history, anxiety and fear have helped every species to be wary and to survive. Fear can signal us to act, or, alternatively, to resist the impulse to act. It can help us to make wise, self-protective choices in and out of relationships where we might otherwise sail mindlessly along, ignoring signs of trouble.
HARRIET LERNER
Fear and Other Uninvited Guests
All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by two emotions--fear or love. In truth there are only two emotions--only two words in the language of the soul.... Fear wraps our bodies in clothing, love allows us to stand naked. Fear clings to and clutches all that we have, love gives all that we have away. Fear holds close, love holds dear. Fear grasps, love lets go. Fear rankles, love soothes. Fear attacks, love amends.
NEALE DONALD WALSCH
Conversations with God
Fear of the unknown translates to fear of losing control. In order to feel safe, we feel we must control every variable--human, environmental, technical. And yet, as life, this just isn't realistic. Controlling everything that's around the corner simply isn't possible.
IVY NAISTADT
Speak Without Fear
Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.
REX STOUT
The Doorbell Rang
We often suffer more from our fears, than from the dangers of our situation.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
You can't stop being afraid just by pretending everything that scares you isn't there.
MICHAEL MARSHALL
The Upright Man
Fear is ever-present, waiting to be called to the surface. Change brought fear, and fear brought destruction.
BERNARD BECKETT
Genesis
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL