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!
Courage consists in equality to the problem before us.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Society and Solitude
This is the art of courage: to see things as they are and still believe that the victory lies not with those who avoid the bad, but those who taste, in living awareness, every drop of the good.
VICTORIA LINCOLN
Vogue, Oct. 1, 1952
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
Everyone became brave from excess of terror.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Salammbo
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.
G. K. CHESTERTON
Orthodoxy
Courage in danger is half the battle.
PLAUTUS
Pseudolus
Courage, like cowardice, is undoubtedly contagious, but some persons are not liable to catch it.
ARCHIBALD PRENTICE
Prenticeana
Better to die on your feet than on your knees.
DAN SIMMONS
Olympos
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
I can sense it
Something important
Is about to happen
It's coming up
It takes courage to enjoy it
The hardcore and the gentle
BJÖRK
"Big Time Sensuality"
Courage leads starward, fear toward death.
SENECA
Hercules Oetaeus
Courage is caution overcome.
LYMAN ABBOTT
The Theology of an Evolutionist
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
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
KARLE WILSON BAKER
Dreamers on Horseback
Courage is being scared to death -- and saddling up anyway.
JOHN WAYNE
Reader's Digest, 1986
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
Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage.
JEAN ANOUILH
Beckett