Fortune favors the bold.
- Latin ProverbCourage
Aristotle placed courage precisely between cowardice and recklessness, settling a confusion that still recurs. Courage is not the absence of fear — that would be insensibility, which is not a virtue but a failure of judgement. Courage is acting despite fear, and it assumes the fear is present and warranted.
The quotes in this theme nearly all turn on that distinction. The most useful of them do not celebrate grand gestures but small ones: speaking up in a meeting, admitting a mistake, starting something with no guarantee attached. Helen Keller, who appears here often, wrote about courage from a life in which ordinary actions required a decision.
I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May AlcottNo one knows what he can do till he tries.
- Publilius SyrusDare to know! Have the courage to use your own understanding.
- Immanuel KantCourage is knowing what not to fear.
- PlatoBeing deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
- Lao TzuTo see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
- ConfuciusNothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
- Marie CurieNo price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
- Friedrich NietzscheThe first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.
- PlatoBegin, be bold and venture to be wise.
- HoraceTraveler, there is no path. The path is made by walking.
- Antonio MachadoCourage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
- C. S. LewisHe who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
- Michel de MontaigneTo dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
- Søren KierkegaardNo bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
- William BlakeNo one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
- Eleanor RooseveltAs soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheLife is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
- Helen KellerIf you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
- EpictetusHe who is brave is free.
- SenecaWith confidence, you have won before you have started.
- Marcus GarveyWe forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
- Arthur SchopenhauerCourage conquers all things.
- OvidAdventure is worthwhile in itself.
- Amelia EarhartOur doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
- William ShakespeareSometimes even to live is an act of courage.
- SenecaFaith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King Jr.Resist much, obey little.
- Walt WhitmanI am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.
- Charlotte BrontëCare about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
- Lao TzuHe who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty.
- Lao TzuThe most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity.
- Amelia EarhartCourage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain