quotations about fear
In regard to the great mass of men, anything that breaks the realm of fear is not salutary, but dangerous; because it takes off one of the hoops that hold the barrel together in which the evil spirits are confined.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.
DANIEL DEFOE
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Though it may arrive with shocking suddenness, horror devours its prey slowly. Through hours of days and years, it spreads its sullen darkness into every corner of the being it has conquered.
JOSEPHINE HART
Damage
The fear we throw about danger is always as disproportionate as a paternal shirt on an infant.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Fear, true fear, is a savage frenzy. Of all the insanities of which we are capable, it is surely the cruelest. There is naught to equal its drive, and naught can survive its thrust.
GEORGES BERNANOS
A Diary of My Times
To him who is in fear everything rustles.
SOPHOCLES
Acrisius [fragment]
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
Fear the man who's feared of you.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
Fear was there, too, cold and hot at the same time, making everything in the plain room sharper, with fewer shadows.
ALLISON BRENNAN
Fear No Evil
You are frightened of everything. You call it caution. You call it common sense. You call it practicality. You call it playing the odds, but that's only because you're afraid to call it by its real name, and its real name is fear.
MICK FARREN
Darklost
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to 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
Dune
Always use the proper names for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Fear is another emotion that is strongly suppressed. We cannot afford to be afraid, and so we don't allow ourselves to sense and feel the fear within us. We lower our brows to deny it, set our jaws to defy it, and smile to deceive ourselves. But inwardly we remain scared to death.
ALEXANDER LOWEN
Fear of Life
The boundaries between fear and other emotions are not clear-cut. How does fear differ from dread, consternation or surprise? Anger, disgust, hatred and horror all contain elements of fear. Jealousy may be understood as fear of losing one's partner; guilt may be fear of God's punishment; shame may be fear of humiliation. I history of fear would be rendered meaningless if all negative emotional states were classified as 'really' being fear states.
JOANNA BOURKE
Fear: A Cultural History
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
If there is one thing which I would banish from the earth it is fear.
HENRY FORD
Theosophist Magazine, Feb. 1930
The understanding of fear cures fear.
ROBERT ANTHONY
Beyond Positive Thinking
Fear flies through fancy's door.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
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
Fear has no brains; it is an idiot.
AMBROSE BIERCE
"The Moonlit Road"