Selected courage quotes

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

3. One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

4. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

5. There may be a time in life when one is tired of everything and feels as if all one does is wrong, and there maybe some truth in it - do you think this is a feeling one must try to forget and to banish, or is it 'the longing for God,' which one must not fear, but cherish to see if it may bring us some good? Is it 'the longing for God' which leads us to make a choice which we never regret? Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.

6. Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.

7. The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

8. Only so you can appeal to your God and pray Him to support and bless your courage, your work, your perseverance, your strength, your resolution, and with all these your claim on life.

9. For the sake of historical truth I must verify that only the Greeks, of all the adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death.

10. There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.

11. Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.

12. Not less strong than the will to truth must be the will to sincerity. Only an age, which can show the courage of sincerity, can possess truth, which works as a spiritual force within it.

13. One man with courage makes a majority.

14. To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.

15. He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

16. Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

17. To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.

18. You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

19. Come back again, old heart! Ah me! Methinks in those thy coward fears There might, perchance, a courage be, That fails in these the manlier years; Courage to let the courage sink, Itself a coward base to think, Rather than not for heavenly light Wait on to show the truly right.

20. Take Courage! Whatever you decide to do, it will probably be the wrong thing.

21. We must have courage, faith, and lunch together sometime soon.

22. It's hard to face tomorrow, but it's easier than facing no tomorrow.

23. I can face anything, except the future, and certain parts of the past and present.

24. Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back.

25. Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

26. Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not.

27. To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true.

28. I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn't dare to make an enemy should get out of the business.

29. Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.

30. I would rather be free in my mind, and be locked up in a prison cell, than to be a coward and not be able to say what I want.

31. Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

32. If the angels are unkind or the season is dark Or if in the end Love just falls apart Well then here's to our destruction Baby let me be your soul driver.

33. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

34. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

35. I must honor those who fight of their own free will, he said to himself. And I must try to imitate their courage by following my path as a pacifist, wherever it takes me.

36. The truth is always modern and there never comes a time when it is safe to give it voice.

37. Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.

38. Never be silent! Make your opinions known, and do not fear retribution for speaking your mind! The only ones who will aggressively try to silence you are the ones who do not respect the liberties and rights of the individual. Those people deserve our contempt, and when you draw them out of the shadows by exercising your civil right to freedom of speech, they will expose themselves for what they truly are.

39. Whether you actually can or can't fight city hall is of little relevance. Either way, when the need arises, you must!

40. Fortune favors the audacious.

41. The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring effort. Creativity takes courage.

42. Oh courage...oh yes! If only one had that...Then life might be livable, in spite of everything.

43. Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.

44. I thank God for the honesty and virility of Jesus religion which makes us face the facts and calls us to take a man's part in the real battle of life.

45. Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus with seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly.

46. Youth is the time when hearts are large, And stirring wars Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn To the blade it draws.

47. My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied.

48. Let me alone: I have yet my legs and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it's off the better.

49. Now I can do no more. We must trust to the Great Disposer of all events and the justice of our cause. I thank God for this opportunity of doing my duty.

50. I was right to back Muhammad Ali, but it caused me major enmity in many areas of this nation.

51. Then there is a still higher type of courage - the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead.

52. Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors.

53. I do not have any fears, no fear of dying, of failure, of anything; that means I am very dangerous for my opponents.

54. If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.

55. A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.

56. Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

57. They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.

58. Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.

59. Because our lives are cowardly and sly, Because we do not dare to take or give, Because we scowl and pass each other by, We do not live; we do not dare to live.

60. I realized now that militancy in the best sense of the word was the only answer where the black man was concerned, that any black man who wasn't a militant in 1970 was either blind or a coward.

61. A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

62. What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

63. The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

64. Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.

65. If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

66. I'm ready to take the heat.

67. He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells it boldly and has done is both bolder and milder than he who nibbles in a low voice and never ceases nibbling.

68. The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise; the hero sees both; diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers.

69. Come! Let us lay a lance in rest, And tilt at windmills under a wild sky! For who would live so petty and unblest That dare not tilt at something ere he die; Rather than, screened by safe majority, Preserve his little life to little end, And never raise a rebel cry!

70. Nought venture nought have.

71. All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

72. In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.

73. No right way is easy in this rough world. We must risk our lives to save them.

74. He who loves is not ashamed before men of what he does for God, neither does he hide it through shame though the whole world should condemn it.

75. I have not yet begun to fight!

76. It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.

77. Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

78. Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.

79. Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.

80. It is courage based on confidence, not daring, and it is confidence based on experience.

81. He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

82. The last thing a woman will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage.

83. The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.

84. When Freedom from her mountain-height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure, celestial white With streakings of the morning light. Flag of the free heart's hope and home! By angel hands to valour given! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?

85. He who knows the truth and does not speak it is a miserable coward.

86. I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.

87. We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.

88. What you'll need most is courage. It is not an easy path that you've set your foot upon.

89. Love is too precious to be ashamed of.

90. A life of love is one of continual growth, where the doors and windows of experience are always open to the wonder and magic that life offers. To love is to risk living fully.

91. Things omitted are often more deadly than errors committed.

92. Unjust. How many times I've used that word, scolded myself with it. All I mean by it now is that I don't have the final courage to say that I refuse to preside over violations against myself, and to hell with justice.

93. If someone had told me, don't say anything about Lillian Hellman because she'll sue you, it wouldn't have stopped me. It might have spurred me on.

94. Exile, for no other motive than ease, would be the last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.

95. The truly fearless think of themselves as normal.

96. We Call Them the Brave who likely were reluctant to be brave.

97. The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money.

98. The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.

99. If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.

100. History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.