Courage

Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else. ~ Maya Angelou

Courage, also called fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation. It can be divided into "physical courage" — in face of physical pain, hardship, and threat of death — and "moral courage" — in the face of shame, scandal, and discouragement.

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations · Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) · See also · External links

A

• Courage is the most powerful and prominent situation that a person experiences in his life and in some situations he sometimes remembers it whether at the time of victory or by chance.
• Courage is an action not a form. Courage leads to the stars fear leads to death. So be brave so that you may live among the wolves.
• Courage is a priceless treasure, but never challenge someone who has nothing to lose.
• The secrets of success are courage and be careful of all the people around you because treachery always comes from relatives and .not enemies.~~ March 8, 2025
  • Abdelnasser Abdelfattah
  • Abdelnasser Abdelfattah His Sayings About Courage

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life. ~ Maya Angelou

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others. ~ Winston Churchill

Courage is what others can't see, what is never affirmed. It is made of what you have thrown away and then come back for. ~ Leonard Cohen

Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk — especially in new undertakings. ~ Walt Disney

Courage remains as important in the legal profession today as it was then. Throughout our history lawyers who have made the greatest mark on this country haven't done so because they were smarter or were born into better families or held more important positions; it was because they were willing to stand firm for justice in the face of immense pressure and often at grave personal costs. ~ Neil Gorsuch

What do I mean by courage? Well, let's start with what I don't mean. I don't mean blind bullheadedness or rudeness or incivility. We have all too much of those things in our culture and in our profession. They are pretenders of courage, not the real thing. For true courage will often require you to admit a mistake, hold your tongue, or wait to fight another day. When it requires you to stand up against the powers arrayed around you, it will also require you to do so with not just respect but affection for your fellow citizen. ~ Neil Gorsuch

Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built. ~ Rollo May

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. ~ John F. Kennedy

The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul. ~ John F. Kennedy

Part of having feelings is learning to integrate them into your life, learning to live with them. No matter what the circumstances ... Sometimes it takes courage to try. Courage can be an emotion too. ~ Jean-Luc Picard

"You've been described as "Utterly fearless."
"Who, me? Who the hell said that?" ~ Kim Willenson & George S. Patton IV

Courage is never born with a person; time and circumstances inject it into a person and bring it forth from within. ~ Sanu Sharma

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence. ~ Aristotle

Valour lies just halfway between rashness and cowheartedness. ~ Miguel de Cervantes

Be steadfast as a tower that doth not bend its stately summit to the tempest's shock. ~ Dante Alighieri

Complete courage and absolute cowardice are extremes that very few men fall into. The vast middle space contains all the intermediate kinds and degrees of courage; and these differ as much from one another as men's faces or their humors do. ~ François de La Rochefoucauld

Not only does the bull attack its foe with its crooked horns, but the injured sheep will fight its assailant. ~ Sextus Propertius

Have courage to use your own understanding! ~ Immanuel Kant

• Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and when it is only a kind of instinct in the Soul breaks out on all occasions without judgment or discretion. That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason. 117
  • Joseph Addison, The Guardian (1713)

• 'Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul:
  I think the Romans call it Stoicism.
  • Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act I, scene 4.

• The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
  • Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act V, scene 1.

• Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.
  • Maya Angelou, in Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou (2014), p. 68

• Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
  • Maya Angelou, as quoted in USA Today (5 March 1988)
  • Variant:
  • Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
    • As quoted in Diversity : Leaders Not Labels (2006) by Stedman Graham, p. 224.

• We, unaccustomed to courage
  exiles from delight
  live coiled in shells of loneliness
  until love leaves its high holy temple
  and comes into our sight
  to liberate us into life.
  • Maya Angelou, in A Brave and Startling Truth (1995).

• Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.
  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 3.6 (1094 A.D.).

• 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, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), "Sensus Communis".

• Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.
  • Aster and Richter Abend in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.

B

• The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
  For that were stupid and irrational;
  But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues,
  And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.
  • Joanna Baillie, Count Basil (1798), Act III, scene 1, line 151.

• The VC, to my mind, has a place above all other national awards. It is the highest award for gallantry. People have it in their minds that the Victoria Cross is something special, so anyone who's got the VC must be somebody special. And they're right.
  • General Sir Peter Edgar de la Cour de la Billière, on the 2003 BBC documentary film The Victoria Cross: For Valour.

• Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.
  • Ray Bradbury, Brown Daily Herald (March 24, 1995).

• Questions at home and school should be decided in the light of the future. It is a process of toughening, but not the sort of false physical thing that we have called toughening. Our boys and girls ought to know that the bully type, the false "tough," has been the first to break down under the actual fire of battle. The quiet, the calm, the determined have made the best soldiers. Why? Obviously the bully is insecure in himself- he blusters to muster his own courage. Children ought to know that. They ought to be taught to retort to the bully, "You're a coward or you wouldn't make such a noise about being brave. The really brave man simply acts brave- he doesn't have to talk about it."
  • Pearl S. Buck, What America Means to Me (1943), p. 151-152

• Walk on with courage and bravery. Go on working to improve humankind and establish the Path of Truth. (…) Fight for truth! To face life you must have great courage every day.
  • Haidakhan Babaji, The Teachings of Babaji, 16 January 1983.

• Now people with courage are needed. It is better to die, facing life with courage. To live as a coward is shameful – it is better that the coward drown himself in the river. (…) Awake! Arise! Be brave!
  • Haidakhan Babaji, The Teachings of Babaji, 5 July 1983.

• When a man is fearless, no man can stand against him in battle – either a battle in material life or in spiritual life. He is victorious in all battles of life.
  • Haidakhan Babaji, The Teachings of Babaji, 29 October 1983.

• We require in our life both personal effort and Divine Guidance. Nothing can be achieved simply by personal effort, we also require Divine Mercy. But simply Divine Mercy is not enough, we require the strength and courage to receive it. Just as a bird cannot fly without both wings, so also a man cannot attain success in spiritual life without personal endeavour and Divinity.
  • Paramahansa Maharshi Nagendranath Bhaduri, Extracts from precepts of Maharshi Nagendranath, The Levitating Saint [ His Life & Advices] - Translated by Prof. Tripurasankar Sen Shastri , Nagendra Mission, 2B Rammohan Roy Road, Kolkata -700 009,W.B, India, p. 32

• Have the courage to think and act on your own. And have the courage to disobey.
  • Bravely Default (2013), Sage Yulyana.

• All doubt is cowardice — all trust is brave.
  • Edward Bulwer-Lytton, King Arthur (1848-9), Book XII, Chapter XXVIII.

• The French courage proceeds from vanity — the German from phlegm — the Turkish from fanaticism & opium — the Spanish from pride — the English from coolness — the Dutch from obstinacy — the Russian from insensibility — but the Italian from anger.
  • George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824), British poet. in a letter to his publisher John Murray (1820).

• And each man stands with his face in the light
  Of his own drawn sword,
  Ready to do what a hero can.
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Napoleon III in Italy (1860), VIII.

C

• Valour lies just halfway between rashness and cowheartedness.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605-15)

• There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. There are periods when...to dare, is the highest wisdom.
  • William Ellery Channing, The Union (1829).

• 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, Chapter 6 (1909).

• Men and kings must be judged in the testing moments of their lives. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others. Courage, physical and moral, King Alfonso has proved on every occasion of personal danger or political stress. Many years ago in the face of a difficult situation Alfonso made the proud declaration, no easy boast in Spain, “I was born on the throne, I shall die on it.”
  • Winston Churchill, in an article published in “Collier’s” magazine about King Alfonso XIII of Spain on 27 June 1931. Source: 1931 June 27, Collier’s, Unlucky Alfonso by Winston Churchill, Start Page 11, Quote Page 49, Column 2, P. F. Collier and Son, New York. (Unz Database). As quoted in: Quote Investigator (July 14, 2019): Courage Is Rightly Esteemed the First of Human Qualities Because . . . It Is the Quality Which Guarantees All Others. Archived from the original on July 7, 2023.
  • Variant: Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, 'it is the quality which guarantees all others.' Winston Churchill, Great Contemporaries, "Alfonso XIII" (1937).

• Courage is what others can't see, what is never affirmed. It is made of what you have thrown away and then come back for.
  • Leonard Cohen. From Leonard Cohen’s journals. As quoted in: Zeus Ghosh (June 30, 2022): Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (2021) Review: A tryst with the God of Songs. In: High on Films. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023. Spoken by Leonard Cohen in the 2022 documentary "Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song" made by directors/producers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine. Source: Transkript of "Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (2021)". In: subslikescript.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023.

• To worship to other than one's own ancestral spirits is brown-nosing. If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.
  • Confucius, The Analects

• It may often be noticed, the less virtuous people are, the more they shrink away from the slightest whiff of the odour of un-sanctity. The good are ever the most charitable, the pure are the most brave.
  • Dinah Craik, A Woman's Thoughts About Women (1858), Ch. 11.

D

• Sta come torre ferma, che non crolla
  Giammai la cima per soffiar de' venti.
  • Be steadfast as a tower that doth not bend its stately summit to the tempest's shock.
  • Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio (early 14th century), V. 14.

• Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk — especially in new undertakings. Courage to initiate something and to keep it going, pioneering and adventurous spirit to blaze new ways, often, in our land of opportunity.
  • Walt Disney, as quoted in The Disney Way Fieldbook (2000) by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, Act III : Dare, p. 147.

• Whistling to keep myself from being afraid.
  • John Dryden, Amphitryon (1690), Act III, scene 1.

E

• Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.
  The soul that knows it not, know no release
  From little things;
  Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
  Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
  The sound of wings.
  • Amelia Earhart, Courage (1927).

• Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
  • Actually written by E. F. Schumacher in a 1973 essay titled "Small is Beautiful" which appeared in The Radical Humanist: volume 37, p. 22. Earliest published source found on Google Books attributing this to Einstein is BMJ: The British Medical Journal, volume 319, 23 October 1999, p. 1102. It was attributed to Einstein on the internet somewhat before that, for example in this 1997 post.

• Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, entry in 1859 (1909-1914).

• A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Culture," The Conduct of Life (1860).

• 'Tis said that courage is common, but the immense esteem in which it is held proves it to be rare. Animal resistance, the instinct of the male animal when cornered, is no doubt common; but the pure article, courage with eyes, courage with conduct, self-possession at the cannon's mouth, cheerfulness in lonely adherence to the right, is the endowment of elevated characters.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Courage," Society and Solitude (1870).

• It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Courage," Society and Solitude.

• Fortitude, the virtue which enables us to endure pain, and to banish fear, is of great use in producing tranquility.
  • Epicurus, as quoted in Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers (Half-Hours with the Freethinkers) by Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts (1877)

F

• Be scared. You can’t help that. But don’t be afraid. Ain’t nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid. A bear or a deer, too, has got to be scared of a coward the same as a brave man has got to be.
  • William Faulkner, “The Bear” in The Saturday Evening Post (May 9, 1942).

• Courage is defined as: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action. Many of today’s world leaders have great courage: I wonder... would we be better off with cowardice?
  • Joshua Fernandez Courage. www.blogspot.com.

• People talk of the courage of convictions, but in actual life a man's duty to his family may make a rigid course seem a selfish indulgence of his own righteousness.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Four Fists", Flappers and Philosophers (1920).

• Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.
  • E.M. Forster, Pharos and Pharillon, "The Poetry of C.P. Cavafy" (1923).

• Courage is of the heart by derivation,
  And great it is. But fear is of the soul.
  • Robert Frost, A Masque of Mercy (1947).

• Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs
  Better than all the stalemate an's and ifs.
  • Robert Frost, For John F. Kennedy His Inauguration (1960).

G

• Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.
  • Ruth Gordon, L'Officiel (Summer 1980).

• Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.
  • Billy Graham, "A Time for Moral Courage" Reader's Digest (July 1964).

• Courage remains as important in the legal profession today as it was then. Throughout our history lawyers who have made the greatest mark on this country haven't done so because they were smarter or were born into better families or held more important positions; it was because they were willing to stand firm for justice in the face of immense pressure and often at grave personal costs.
  • Neil Gorsuch, Speech to students at Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa on 16 August 2018. In: A Republic, If You Can Keep It. New York: Crown Forum, p. 182. Quote from the 2019 hardcover first edition.

• What do I mean by courage? Well, let's start with what I don't mean. I don't mean blind bullheadedness or rudeness or incivility. We have all too much of those things in our culture and in our profession. They are pretenders of courage, not the real thing. For true courage will often require you to admit a mistake, hold your tongue, or wait to fight another day. When it requires you to stand up against the powers arrayed around you, it will also require you to do so with not just respect but affection for your fellow citizen. What I mean by courage is what Atticus Finch meant by it in To Kill a Mockingbird. You may remember that Finch defended an African-American man wrongly accused of raping a white woman in Alabama during the Great Depression- and that in taking on the representation he faced criticism and threats from his friends and community. As he told his daughter in the book: "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
  • Neil Gorsuch, Speech to students at Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa on 16 August 2018. In: A Republic, If You Can Keep It. New York: Crown Forum, p. 182-183. Quote from the 2019 hardcover first edition.

H

The man who is just and resolute will not be moved from his settled purpose, either by the misdirected rage of his fellow citizens, or by the threats of an imperious tyrant. ~ Horace

• It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. It is when we all play safe that fatality will lead us to our doom. It is in the "dark shade of courage" alone that the spell can be broken.
  • Dag Hammarskjöld, Servant of Peace : A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations (1962), p. 107.

• Cowardly Lion: Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the Sphinx the Seventh Wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got?
  Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman: Courage!
  Cowardly Lion: You can say that again! Hunh!
  • Yip Harburg, from the film The Wizard of Oz (1939).

• Courage is the ability to ignore your options.
  • Tom Heehler, The Well-Spoken Thesaurus (March, 2011).

• My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage.
  • Alice Hoffman Practical Magic (1995)

• The onward march of the human race requires that the heights around it constantly blaze with noble lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history and form one of man's guiding lights.
  • Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862).

• Courage, of all national qualities, is the most precarious; because it is exerted only at intervals, and by a few in every nation; whereas industry, knowledge, civility, may be of constant and universal use, and for several ages, may become habitual to the whole people.
  • David Hume, Of National Characters, part I, essay XXI (1758).

• Winston Churchill famously claimed that of all human qualities, courage was the most esteemed, because it guaranteed all others. He was right. Courage—moral courage—is the companion of great leadership. No politician could ever be viewed as exceptional unless he or she had it in spades. And historically there would have been no social progress if not for the presence of specific humans dissenting and breaking from herd-inspired suspicion and fear.... At best, courage is self-sacrificing, non-violent, modest and based on universal principles — and immensely powerful. Think Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. Regrettably, courage is also rare: think Gandhi or MLK again. And dangerous: both men were assassinated.... Look at today’s politicians... keen to be viewed as the virile leaders of their respective countries; eager to inflate their image by harming migrants and refugees, the most vulnerable in society. If there is courage in that, I fail to see it. Authoritarian leaders, or elected leaders inclined toward it, are bullies, deceivers, selfish cowards. If they are growing in number it is because (with exceptions) many other politicians are mediocre... focused on their own image... too afraid to stand up... If we do not change course quickly, we will inevitably encounter an incident where that first domino is tipped—triggering a sequence of unstoppable events that will mark the end of our time on this tiny planet...
  • Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in "Grassroots leaders provide the best hope to a troubled world," The Economist, (30 August 2018)

I

• [Deprogramming survivor Toru Goto] teaches us that resilience is not a trait, but a choice. That faith is not weakness, but armor. That freedom is not always granted—sometimes, it must be reclaimed.
  • Massimo Introvigne, "The Battle for the Soul: Toru Goto’s Harrowing Tale of Captivity and Courage", Bitter Winter (August 6, 2025)

• My lord, I am without fear!
  • Ishbi-Erra to Ibbi-Sin, Letter from Ishbi-Erra to Ibbi-Suen about the purchase of grain, Correspondence of the Kings of Ur, Old Babylonian period, ca. 1800-1600 BCE, at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature; their original date of composition and their historical accuracy are debated.

J

• [C]ourage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.
  • Samuel Johnson, quoted in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, April 5, 1775 (1791).

• Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.
  • Samuel Johnson, quoted in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, June 11, 1784 (1791).

K

Have courage to use your own understanding! ~ Immanuel Kant

• Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere aude! "Have courage to use your own understanding!"—that is the motto of enlightenment.
  • Immanuel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?"

• Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men - such as the subjects of this book - have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures—and that is the basis of all human morality.
  • John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage (1956).

• What really counts is not the immediate act of courage or of valor, but those who bear the struggle day in and day out — not the sunshine patriots but those who are willing to stand for a long period of time.
  • John F. Kennedy, "Remarks at the White House to Members of the American Legion (70)," March 1, 1962, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1962

• In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
  • John F. Kennedy, 1964 Memorial Edition of Profiles in Courage, p. 266

• It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.
  • Søren Kierkegaard, "Irony as a Mastered Moment: The Truth of Irony," pt. 2, The Concept of Irony (1841).

• Victory goes to those with courage!
  • The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar Final (2000), Guy Shishioh

L

• Complete courage and absolute cowardice are extremes that very few men fall into. The vast middle space contains all the intermediate kinds and degrees of courage; and these differ as much from one another as men's faces or their humors do.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Moral Maxims and Reflections, no. 215 (1665-1678).

• Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Moral Maxims and Reflections, no. 216.

• I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
  • Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird, Part 1, Chapter 11 (1960).

• [C]ourage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.
  • C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942), letter XXIX

• 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, "The Art of Courage," Vogue (October 1, 1952).

• Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.
  • Clare Boothe Luce, Reader's Digest (May 1979).

M

• If feminism is truly universal, it must include the women who cannot speak for themselves—the imprisoned poet, the grieving mother, the young girl growing up in a surveillance state where even her language is treated as a threat. … History has always been shaped by the courage of women, often in ways the world fails to notice.
  • Rahima Mahmut, "Women’s History Month Must Not Forget Uyghur Women", Bitter Winter (March 31, 2026)

• I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
  • Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1995).

• "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"
  "That is the only time a man can be brave."
  • George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones, Bran (I)—Bran and Ned

• Courage is the obvious virtue of the stupid.
  • Somerset Maugham, The Door of Opportunity (in Collected Short Stories 2), p. 423

• It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom, to move on in one's inward journey into new realms, than to stand defiantly for outer freedom. It is often easier to play the martyr, as it is to be rash in battle. Strange as it sounds, steady, patient growth in freedom is probably the most difficult task of all, requiring the greatest courage. Thus if the term "hero" is used in this discussion at all, it must refer not to the special acts of outstanding persons, but to the heroic element potentially in every man.
  • Rollo May, Man's Search for Himself (1953), p. 174.

• In any age courage is the simple virtue needed for a human being to traverse the rocky road from infancy to maturity of personality. But in an age of anxiety, an age of herd morality and personal isolation, courage is a sine qua non. In periods when the mores of the society were more consistent guides, the individual was more firmly cushioned in his crises of development; but in times of transition like ours, the individual is thrown on his own at an earlier age and for a longer period.
  • Rollo May, Man's Search for Himself (1953), p. 191.

• Courage is the capacity to meet the anxiety which arises as one achieves freedom. It is the willingness to differentiate, to move from the protecting realms of parental dependence to new levels of freedom and integration.
  • Rollo May, Man's Search for Himself (1953), p. 192.

• Courage is not a virtue of value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and personal values. Without courage our love pales into mere dependency. Without courage our fidelity becomes conformism.
  • Rollo May, The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 1 : The Courage to Create, p. 12.

• Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.
  • Rollo May, The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 1 : The Courage to Create, p. 21.

N

• I know what I have to do now. I got to keep breathing, because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?
  • Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland in Cast Away (2000)

• God grant me the serenity
  to accept the things I cannot change,
  courage to change the things I can,
  and the wisdom to know the difference.
  • Reinhold Niebuhr The Serenity Prayer (c. 1942).

O

• My courage...exists to catch the future! I'll take my future into my own hands. That's what I wish for! For the courage to keep going forward!
  • Kai Ozu, interpreted by Atsushi Hashimoto in Mahou Sentai Magiranger (2005), written by Jun Maekawa, Naruhisa Arakawa, Michiko Yokote and Akatsuki Yamatoya

• Leve fit quod bene fertur onus.
  • The burden which is well borne becomes light.
  • Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), I. 2. 10.

P

• Part of having feelings is learning to integrate them into your life, Data, ...learning to live with them. No matter what the circumstances ... Sometimes it takes courage to try, Data. Courage can be an emotion too.
  • Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek Generations (1994) story by Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore and Rick Berman

R

• Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
  • Eddie Rickenbacker, as quoted in Quote Unquote (1977) compiled by Lloyd Cory, p. 73.

• You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." …You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
  • Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living (1960).

• It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies; but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.
  • J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Albus Dumbledore).

S

• If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
  • Carl Sagan, Cosmos. New York: Random House. 1980. LCC QB44.2.S235. ISBN 0394502949. , p. 193.

• Come one, come all! this rock shall fly
  From its firm base, as soon as I.
  • Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake (1810), Canto V, Stanza 10.

• King Richard: A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!
  Catesby: Withdraw, my lord! I'll help you to a horse.
  King Richard: Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
  And I will stand the hazard of the die.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act V, scene iv.

• You must not think
  That we are made of stuff so fat and dull
  That we can let our beard be shook with danger
  And think it pastime.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act IV, scene 7, line 29.

• O, the blood more stirs
  To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act I, scene 3, line 198.

• The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
  And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III (c. 1591), Act II, scene 2, line 17.

• Why, courage then! what cannot be avoided
  'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III (c. 1591), Act V, scene 4, line 37.

• Cowards die many times before their deaths;
  The valiant never taste of death but once.
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (1599), Act II, scene 2.

• We fail!
  But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
  And we'll not fail.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act I, scene 7, line 59.

• I dare do all that may become a man;
  Who dares do more is none.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act I, scene 7.

• By how much unexpected, by so much
  We must awake endeavour for defence;
  For courage mounteth with occasion.
  • William Shakespeare, King John (1598), Act II, scene 1, line 80.

• Muster your wits: stand in your own defence;
  Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.
  • William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-6), Act V, scene 2, line 85.

• He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion.
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act I, scene 1, line 13.

• The thing of courage
  As rous'd with rage doth sympathise,
  And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
  Retorts to chiding fortune.
  • William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602), Act I, scene 3, line 51.

• Courage is never born with a person; time and circumstances inject it into a person and bring it forth from within.
  • Sanu Sharma, Tee Saat Din pp.93

• Whether you want to break free or connect, it's your choice. But with great courage, I locked my eyes with yours.
  • Sanu Sharma

• Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement.
  • Florence Scovel Shinn, from her book The Game of Life (and How to Play it) (1925).

• True courage scorns
  To vent her prowess in a storm of words;
  And, to the valiant, actions speak alone.
  • Tobias Smollett, The Regicide (1749), Act II, scene vii.

• Some paths aren't lost—they’re just waiting for someone brave enough to walk them.

T

• Mental clarity is the child of courage, not the other way around.
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010) Fooled by Randomness, p.57.

• Who stemm'd the torrent of a downward age.
  • James Thomson, The Seasons, Summer (1727), line 1,516

• Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea! — incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.
  • Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Chapter 12 (1894).

W

• Real courage, however, is shown by those who don’t merely follow the trend or status quo, but who stand up for that which is right and truly just — and don’t kneel.
  • Allen West, "I'd like to see MORE football player protests — NOT less" (27 September 2017)

Kim Willenson: "You've been described as 'utterly fearless.'"

George S. Patton IV: "Who, me? Who the hell said that? Everybody's afraid, but to do your job in combat you have to put your fear down. If you're not afraid in combat, you're either a fool or a liar. I'd go back to the Army tonight if I could. I loved the people, the life, the fellowship, the travel. There was nothing about it I didn't like, except my tour in the Pentagon. I liked my tours in Vietnam because I felt I served my country in the way I'd been trained to do. Let's put it this way, a violinist who doesn't have a violin is going to be a lousy violinist. A soldier who does not participate in his country's wars is not a very good soldier. I didn't realize we were going to lose until I was well at home. You've got to understand that I came home in '69. But in May '75 I sat in front of the television set and watched all that fighting along the Saigon Bridge and the final death throes of the South Vietnamese, and the pictures of them throwing the helicopters off the carrier, and I bawled. I cried."

• Exchange between Willenson and Patton during the former's interviewing of the latter, as quoted in The Bad War: An Oral History of the Vietnam War (1987), p. 79

• Courage is a moral quality; it is not a chance gift of nature like an aptitude for games. It is a cold choice between two alternatives, the fixed resolve not to quit; an act of renunciation which must be made not once but many times by the power of the will.
  • Charles Wilson, The Anatomy of Courage (1967).

Z

• Such is the essence of valor: an unthinking moment, a spark along the spinal nerves, predetermined by the sum total of everything you have ever done, wished to do or not to do, and wish you had done, or hadn't, and then comes the pain.
  • Roger Zelazny, The Moment of the Storm in The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories (1971), p. 199 (originally published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1966)

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 142-44.

• The schoolboy, with his satchel in his hand,
  Whistling aloud to bear his courage up.
  • Robert Blair, The Grave, Part I, line 58.

• One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
  Never doubted clouds would break,
  Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
  Held we fall to rise, are baffled to flight better,
  Sleep to wake.
  • Robert Browning, Epilogue. Asolando.

• We are not downhearted, but we cannot understand what is happening to our neighbours.
  • Joseph Chamberlain, speech at Southwick (Jan. 15, 1906).

• A man of courage is also full of faith.
  • Cicero, The Tusculan Disputations, Book III, Chapter VII. Yonge's translation.

• The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude, Courage.

• Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend
  To mean devices for a sordid end.
  Courage—an independent spark from Heaven's bright throne,
  By which the soul stands raised, triumphant high, alone.
  Great in itself, not praises of the crowd,
  Above all vice, it stoops not to be proud.
  Courage, the mighty attribute of powers above,
  By which those great in war, are great in love.
  The spring of all brave acts is seated here,
  As falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear.
  • George Farquhar, Love and a Bottle. Part of dedication to the Lord Marquis of Carmarthen.

• Stop shallow water still running, it will rage; tread on a worm and it will turn.
  • Robert Greene, Worth of Wit.

• Few persons have courage enough to appear as good as they really are.
  • J. C. and A. W. Hare, Guesses at Truth.

• Tender handed stroke a nettle,
  And it stings you for your pains;
  Grasp it like a man of mettle,
  And it soft as silks remains.
  • Aaron Hill, Verses Written on a Window.

• O friends, be men, and let your hearts be strong,
  And let no warrior in the heat of fight
  Do what may bring him shame in others' eyes;
  For more of those who shrink from shame are safe
  Than fall in battle, while with those who flee
  Is neither glory nor reprieve from death.
  • Homer, The Iliad, Book V, line 663. Bryant's translation.

• Justum et tenacem propositi virum
  Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
  Non vultus instantis tyranni,
  Mente quatit solida.
  • The man who is just and resolute will not be moved from his settled purpose, either by the misdirected rage of his fellow citizens, or by the threats of an imperious tyrant.
  • Horace, Carmina, III. 3. 1.

• "Be bold!" first gate; "Be bold, be bold, and evermore be bold," second gate; "Be not too bold!" third gate.
  • Inscription on the Gates of Busyrane.

• On ne peut répondre de son courage quand on n'a jamais été dans le péril.
  • We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Premier Supplément, 42.

• Write on your doors the saying wise and old,
  "Be bold! be bold!" and everywhere—"Be bold;
  Be not too bold!" Yet better the excess
  Than the defect; better the more than less;
  Better like Hector in the field to die,
  Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Morituri Salutamus.

• What! shall one monk, scarce known beyond his cell,
  Front Rome's far-reaching bolts, and scorn her frown?
  Brave Luther answered, "Yes"; that thunder's swell
  Rocked Europe, and discharmed the triple crown.
  • James Russell Lowell, To W. L. Garrison, Stanza 5.

• Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.
  • Matthew, XIV. 27.

• I argue not
  Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
  Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
  Right onward.
  • John Milton, Sonnet, To Cyriack Skinner.

• Animus tamen omnia vincit.
  Ille etiam vires corpus habere facit.
  • Courage conquers all things: it even gives strength to the body.
  • Ovid, Epistolæ Ex Ponto, II. 7. 75.

• Pluma haud interest, patronus an cliens probior sit
  Homini, cui nulla in pectore est audacia.
  • It does not matter a feather whether a man be supported by patron or client, if he himself wants courage.
  • Plautus, Mostellaria, II. 1. 64.

• Bonus animus in mala re, dimidium est mali.
  • Courage in danger is half the battle.
  • Plautus, Pseudolus, I. 5. 37.

• Non solum taurus ferit uncis cornibus hostem,
  Verum etiam instanti læsa repugnat ovis.
  • Not only does the bull attack its foe with its crooked horns, but the injured sheep will fight its assailant.
  • Sextus Propertius, Elegiæ, II. 5. 19.

• Cowards may fear to die; but courage stout,
  Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.
  • Sir Walter Raleigh, the night before he died. Bayley's Life of Raleigh, p. 157.

• C'est dans les grands dangers qu'on voit les grands courages.
  • It is in great dangers that we see great courage.
  • Jean-François Regnard, Le Légataire.

• Be of good courage, and if you are discouraged be encouraged in the presence of the different forms of nature.
  • Jesus, attributed by Mary in the Berlin Codex, Gospel of Mary, Chapter 4 [1]

• Christianity offers reasons for not fearing death or the universe, and in so doing it fails to teach adequately the virtue of courage. The craving for religious faith being largely an outcome of fear, the advocates of faith tend to think that certain kinds of fear are not to be deprecated. In this, to my mind, they are gravely mistaken. To allow oneself to entertain pleasant beliefs as a means of avoiding fear is not to live in the best way. In so far as religion makes its appeal to fear, it is lowering to human dignity.
  • Bertrand Russell, Education and the Social Order (1932), p. 112.

• Virtus in astra tendit, in mortem timor.
  • Courage leads to heaven; fear, to death.
  • Seneca the Younger, Hercules Œtæus, LXXI.

• Fortuna opes auferre, non animum potest.
  • Fortune can take away riches, but not courage.
  • Seneca the Younger, Medea, CLXXVI.

• Ei di virilità grave e maturo,
  Mostra in fresco vigor chiome canute.
  • Grave was the man in years, in looks, in word,
    His locks were gray, yet was his courage green.
  • Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme, I. 53.

• Quod sors feret feremus æquo animo.
  • Whatever chance shall bring, we will bear with equanimity.
  • Terence, Phormio, I. 2. 88.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert's Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• Be courageous. Be independent. Only remember where the true courage and independence come from.
  • Phillips Brooks, p. 165.

• This is the way to cultivate courage: First, by standing firm on some conscientious principle, some law of duty. Next, by being faithful to truth and right on small occasions and common events. Third, by trusting in God for help and power.
  • James F. Clarke, p. 166.

• Conscience in the soul is the root of all true courage. If a man would be brave, let him learn to obey his conscience.
  • James F. Clarke, p. 167.

• A Christian builds his fortitude on a better foundation than stoicism; he is pleased with every thing that happens, because he knows it could not happen unless it first pleased God, and that which pleases Him must be best.
  • Charles Caleb Colton, p. 253.

• Consult the honor of religion more, and your personal safety less. Is it for the honor of religion (think you) that Christians should be as timorous as hares to start at every sound?
  • John Flavel, p. 166.

• Bear your burden manfully. Boys at school, young men who have exchanged boyish liberty for serious business, — all who have got a task to do, a work to finish — bear the burden till God gives the signal for repose — till the work is done, and the holiday is fairly earned.
  • James Hamilton, p. 253.

• Every man must bear his own burden, and it is a fine thing to see any one trying to do it manfully; carrying his cross bravely, silently, patiently, and in a way which makes you hope that he has taken for his pattern the greatest of all sufferers.
  • James Hamilton, p. 253.

• Gird your hearts with silent fortitude, Suffering, yet hoping all things.
  • Felicia Hemans, p. 253.

• There is a contemptibly quiet path for all those who are afraid of the blows and clamor of opposing forces. There is no honorable fighting for a man who is not ready to forget that he has a head to be battered and a name to be bespattered. Truth wants no champion who is not as ready to be struck as to strike for her.
  • Josiah Gilbert Holland, p. 166.

• Providence has clearly ordained that the only path fit and salutary for man on earth is the path of persevering fortitude — the unremitting struggle of deliberate self-preparation and humble but active reliance on Divine aid.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, p. 253.

• In the whole range of earthly experience, no quality is more attractive and ennobling than moral courage. Like that mountain of rock which towers aloft in the Irish Sea, the man possessed of this principle is unmoved by the swelling surges which fret and fume at his feet. And yet, unlike that same Ailsa Craig, he is sensitive beyond measure to every adverse influence — battling against it, and triumphing over it by a power which proceeds from God's throne, and pervades his entire being.
  • John McClellan Holmes, p. 165.

• Whenever you do what is holy, be of good cheer, knowing that God Himself takes part with rightful courage.
  • Menander, p. 167.

• What we want is men with a little courage to stand up for Christ. When Christianity wakes up, and every child that belongs to the Lord is willing to speak for Him, is willing to work for Him, and, if need be, willing to die for Him, then Christianity will advance, and we shall see the work of the Lord prosper.
  • Dwight L. Moody, p. 166.

• To do an evil action is base; to do a good action without incurring danger is common enough; but it is the part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risks every thing.
  • Plutarch, p. 166.

• My dear friend, venture to take the wind on your face for Christ.
  • Samuel Rutherford, p. 165.

• Be not cast down. If ye saw Him who is standing on the shore, holding out His arms to welcome you to land, ye would wade, not only through a sea of wrongs, but through hell itself to be with Him.
  • Samuel Rutherford, p. 253.

• The best hearts are ever the bravest.
  • Laurence Sterne, p. 166.

See also

• Bravery
• Fear
• Valor

External links

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