Courage

322 quotes

Quotes

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

Maya Angelou

Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.

Amelia Earhart

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

Eleanor Roosevelt

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

Nelson Mandela

Life had taught her to be brave, to be patient, to love, to forgive.

L.M. Montgomery

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.

Louisa May Alcott

We realise the importance of our voice when we are silenced.

Malala Yousafzai

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Helen Keller

Fortune favors the bold.Latin proverb

Failure is impossible.

Susan B. Anthony

I can't die but once.

Harriet Tubman

By this I mean that I am anxious to keep religion out of this whole subject of the conquest of fear.Basil King

And any man who puts his life in peril in a cause which is esteemed becomes the darling of all men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This just serves to illustrate my point, that boys have no real discernment for what is courageous.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is really physical courage, skill, prowess, personal attractiveness which is envied and praised.Arthur Christopher Benson

Revenge is born of terror, and to think of God as vindictive is to think of Him as subject to fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

Money-fear comes occasionally; but only as the memory of pain to a wound which you know to be healed.Basil King

Every sailor who served under Nelson, and knew he was in command, shared the inspiration of the hero.Samuel Smiles

There is a sort of unconscious conspiracy existing amongst them against each other's individuality.Samuel Smiles

I wish it had not happened so, I wish I had been kinder, more just, more self-restrained, more strong.Arthur Christopher Benson

It strikes me as strange, on looking back, that so little attempt was made to combat fear by religion.Basil King

Away then with fear, because our first and over-ruling and all-determining relationship is to Him.Basil King

The hero of school life is one like Odysseus, who is strong, inventive, daring, full of resource.Arthur Christopher Benson

Built on fear and run by fear, fear is as essential to their existence as coal to our industries.Basil King

They will be in our next experience as they have been in this, leading us on from strength to strength.Basil King

Intellectual intrepidity is one of the vital conditions of independence and self-reliance of character.Samuel Smiles

It is energy—the central element of which is will—that produces the miracles of enthusiasm in all ages.Samuel Smiles

Courage, for the schoolboy, is merely physical courage, aplomb, boldness, recklessness, high-handedness.Arthur Christopher Benson

I had not understood before that to the conquest of fear the hardening of the inner man is an auxiliary.Basil King

The fear of death was greatly diminished for me on grasping the principle of everlasting Growth.Basil King

I must do what I can to conquer fear in myself, regardless of the attitude or opinions of men in general.Basil King

It can be called by many names, and all of them ugly names—anxiety, timidity, moral cowardice.Arthur Christopher Benson

It was not done by an effort, nor did I brace myself to the situation: fear simply did not come near to me.Arthur Christopher Benson

But Johnson seems never to have been afraid of poverty, nor to have ever troubled about fame.Arthur Christopher Benson

I repeat and repeat again that whatever is done toward the conquest of fear must be done by the individual.Basil King

The next time, therefore, I am the less afraid, having the definite experience to support me.Basil King

All the great reformers and martyrs were antagonistic men—enemies to falsehood and evildoing.Samuel Smiles

My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.

Wilma Rudolph

My point is that whether catastrophe overwhelms us or not, he who chooses not to fear can be free from fear.Basil King

Superfine virtues, which are above the standard of common men, may only be sources of temptation and danger.Samuel Smiles

He had to do his duty—to obey the orders of a Power higher than that of kings; and he did it at all hazards.Samuel Smiles

It is not encouraged by the cheers of the world, for it is mostly exhibited in the recesses of private life.Samuel Smiles

Personal beauty soon passes; but beauty of mind and character increases in attractiveness the older it grows.Samuel Smiles

The base element in it is the fear which dreads the opening of the door, and the quitting of what is familiar.Arthur Christopher Benson

Apart from this, he was not afraid of illness in itself, except as a prelude of mortality.Arthur Christopher Benson

As a matter of fact, in my own case the reaction against fear was from the beginning more or less instinctive.Basil King

If men and women do not possess this virtue, they have no security whatever for the preservation of any other.Samuel Smiles

Luther's courageous defence before the Diet is on record, and forms one of the most glorious pages in history.Samuel Smiles

My point is that whatever there may be to struggle with there is nothing to be afraid of.Basil King

The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.Samuel Smiles

Spinoza remained courageous and self-reliant to the last, dying in obscurity and poverty.Samuel Smiles

Nor is the unjust intolerance displayed towards men of science in the past, without its lesson for the present.Samuel Smiles

Great evils are in some cases only to be met by resistance; they cannot be wept down, but must be battled down.Samuel Smiles

To me it seems basic to the getting rid of fear to know that our trials, of whatever nature, are not motiveless.Basil King

My small experience in the conquest of fear can be condensed into these four words: Calmly resting! quiet trust!Basil King

He does not take even an enemy at a disadvantage, nor strike a man when he is down and unable to defend himself.Samuel Smiles

I do not think mistakes and failures ought to trouble one much; at all events there is no fear mingled with them.Arthur Christopher Benson

Even in the midst of deadly strife such instances of generosity have not been uncommon.Samuel Smiles

He must exercise his own powers, think his own thoughts, and speak his own sentiments.Samuel Smiles

It will be clear from what I have said already that I see no fundamental conquest of fear that is not based in God.Basil King

Where men of high standing have not the courage of their opinions, what is to be expected from men of low standing?Samuel Smiles

Everywhere it is the mainspring of what is called force of character, and the sustaining power of all great action.Samuel Smiles

Mental strength is as necessary for the development of woman's character as of man's.Samuel Smiles

It is so fatally easy to think that one has been inconsiderately treated, and to mistake susceptibility for courage.Arthur Christopher Benson

Because love is the one quality which, if it reaches a certain height, can altogether despise and triumph over fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

Otherwise expressed, fear loses much of its fearfulness when we see it as the summons to putting forth new energies.Basil King

I should be glad to feel that the courage which undoubtedly came had been the creation of my will; but it was not so.Arthur Christopher Benson

No doubt fear has played an enormous part in the progress of the human race itself.Arthur Christopher Benson

Such a power, exercised by men of genius, evokes courage, enthusiasm, and devotion.Samuel Smiles

Hypocrisy and timeserving above are accompanied by hypocrisy and timeserving below.Samuel Smiles

Inspired by benevolence and sustained by courage, they have been the mainstays of all social renovation and progress.Samuel Smiles

We are fearless in proportion as we grow independent enough to know for ourselves.Basil King

The more we are freed from fear the more exultantly we feel our abundance of life.Basil King

Yet there are cases of heroic patience and endurance on the part of women which occasionally come to the light of day.Samuel Smiles

She was of a temperament which in many ways was more open to the assaults of fear than any which could well be devised.Arthur Christopher Benson

Nothing can be more certain than that the character can only be sustained and strengthened by its own energetic action.Samuel Smiles

The advantages of the fearful temperament, if it is not a mere unmanning and desolating dread, are not to be overlooked.Arthur Christopher Benson

He was not afraid of pain, or of the act of dying; it was of the unknown conditions beyond the grave that he was afraid.Arthur Christopher Benson

She was afraid of life, but she stood up to it; she was never crushed or broken.Arthur Christopher Benson

Fear dogs one of us in one way and another in another, but everyone in some way.Basil King

They march up to the scene of action, but at every step their courage oozes out.Samuel Smiles

The real basis for all deep-seated fear about life is the fear that one will not be dealt with either lovingly or justly.Arthur Christopher Benson

For most of us the fear of death is a subconscious rather than an active fear.Basil King

While such has been the courage of the martyrs of science, not less glorious has been the courage of the martyrs of faith.Samuel Smiles

Energy of temperament, with a moderate degree of wisdom, will carry a man further than any amount of intellect without it.Samuel Smiles

Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth.

Roberto Clemente

In fact, as far as I know, little attempt was made to combat fear in any way.Basil King

I am convinced that absolute confidence in God's overflowing liberality of every sort is essential to the conquest of fear.Basil King

There is not a country in which one group is not afraid of some other group.Basil King

The danger of the lone quest leading a man astray can be easily exaggerated.Basil King

Going to the Father without fear is a privilege for every minute of the day.Basil King

But moral cowardice is exhibited quite as much in public as in private life.Samuel Smiles

They have to do battle with these conditions, and if possible overcome them.Samuel Smiles

Struggling from stage to stage upward from the slime a new danger was always to it a new incentive to finding a new resource.Basil King

Luther was as good as his word; and he set forth upon his perilous journey.Samuel Smiles

It is the strong and courageous men who lead and guide and rule the world.Samuel Smiles

She stuck to her duty and faced life with an infinity of patient courage.Arthur Christopher Benson

In my fight against fear, in as far as I made one, God was for many years of no help to me, or of no help of which I was aware.Basil King

In this present spring of 1921 we are having an exhibition of fear on a scale so colossal that the heart of man is dazed by it.Basil King

It should be plain, I think, that no one will ever be released from fear by clinging to the teachings which have inspired fear.Basil King

I speak only for myself when I say that the more I can feel round me the atmosphere of omnipotence the less I am aware of fear.Basil King

I do not affirm that I have conquered fear, but only that in self-defence I have been obliged to do something in that direction.Basil King

To the conquest of fear this splendid universalism is another essential.Basil King

It gives force and impulse to effort, and does not permit it to retreat.Samuel Smiles

But that devotion to duty which marks the heroic character has more often been exhibited by women in deeds of charity and mercy.Samuel Smiles

It did not occur to me then, nor did it, I think, occur to anyone else, what an amazing bit of physical and moral courage it was.Arthur Christopher Benson

There is not a government which is not afraid of some other government.Basil King

At the beginning of his great struggle, he stood almost entirely alone.Samuel Smiles

There is now one opinion for the chamber, and another for the platform.Samuel Smiles

They calculate the risks, and weigh the chances, until the opportunity for effective effort has passed, it may be never to return.Samuel Smiles

Their courage, where their hearts are concerned, is indeed proverbial:Samuel Smiles

I have certainly never seen such an exhibition of courage in my life.Arthur Christopher Benson

Fear was not overcome; I had only made a more or less hesitating stand against it; but even from doing that I got positive results.Basil King

A society that had escaped from fear would escape from their control.Basil King

I come here to a point of no small importance to the conquest of fear, the courage to release oneself from the tether of tradition.Basil King

What we do not get is relief from fear, because we do not understand that fear above all things is what He would take away from us.Basil King

In the Pilgrim's Progress itself, the unreality of the spirits of fear, their secrecy and leniency, is very firmly and wittily told.Arthur Christopher Benson

We shall not, in my judgment, overcome fear till we see Him as He surely must be, generous beyond all our conceptions of generosity.Basil King

He had the moral courage to brave not only the tyranny of the judges who condemned him, but of the mob who could not understand him.Samuel Smiles

Prejudices are pandered to in public, which in private are despised.Samuel Smiles

If one questions a shy boy or girl as to what it is they are afraid of in the presence of strangers, they are quite unable to answer.Arthur Christopher Benson

To me personally it was no small help in overcoming fear when I saw the purpose of existence as expressed in the single word, Growth.Basil King

They are ready to be unprincipled and unjust rather than unpopular.Samuel Smiles

Such men have in all ages represented the moral force of the world.Samuel Smiles

Serene and unquestioned strength can have nothing to do with fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

The greater part of these are never known, for they are done in private, out of the public sight, and for the mere love of doing good.Samuel Smiles

That is what we must try to avoid—any WASTE of time and strength.Arthur Christopher Benson

Having fewer things to be afraid of my mind was clearer for work.Basil King

He must elaborate his own opinions, and form his own convictions.Samuel Smiles

Their confidence in themselves inspires the confidence of others.Samuel Smiles

The persistent man will not be baffled or repulsed by opposition.Samuel Smiles

Decision gives the power of standing firmly, when to yield, however slightly, might be only the first step in a downhill course to ruin.Samuel Smiles

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

Henry Ford

If I look back over my own life, I can discern three distinct stages of fear and anxieties, and I expect it is the same with most people.Arthur Christopher Benson

Another way of escape from the importunities of fear is to be very resolute in fighting against our personal claims to honour and esteem.Arthur Christopher Benson

Fear is the shadow of the imaginative, the resourceful, the inventive temperament, but it multiplies resource and invention a hundredfold.Arthur Christopher Benson

To the mind of to-day trust would be easier were it not for the terror lest God's plans involve us in fearful things from which we shrink.Basil King

In proportion as the individual does so now he reaps the reward of his victory; and in proportion as he reaps that reward fear is overcome.Basil King

Having established it with myself that Universal Presence was also Universal Thought I had made another step toward the elimination of fear.Basil King

But for their continuous antagonism to evil conditions, the world were for the most part given over to the dominion of selfishness and vice.Samuel Smiles

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible.'

Audrey Hepburn

Of all the obstacles to the rooting out of fear the lingering belief in such a distortion of Divine Love is to my mind the most deeply based.Basil King

Character, in a woman, as in a man, will always be found the best safeguard of virtue, the best nurse of religion, the best corrective of Time.Samuel Smiles

But it is precisely in this element of intrepidity that so many persons of promise fall short, and disappoint the expectations of their friends.Samuel Smiles

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

Mother Teresa

I doubt if the records of intimate biography contain a finer object-lesson against fear and all its obsessions than the life of Charlotte Bronte.Arthur Christopher Benson

No such thing can happen to us; our inheritance is absolute and certain, and it is fear that keeps us away from it, and the fear of fearlessness.Arthur Christopher Benson

His example is remembered and appealed to; and his thoughts, his spirit, and his courage continue to be the inspiration of succeeding generations.Samuel Smiles

Briefly, those conclusions were to the effect that as individuals we need difficulties to overcome, and that fear is a stimulus to overcoming them.Basil King

We are repulsed by the God of Fear when we are drawn, comforted, strengthened, and changed by Him who is never anything toward us but "the Father."Basil King

There is a tendency, I am sure, in books, to shirk the whole subject of fear, as though it were a thing disgraceful, shameful, almost unmentionable.Arthur Christopher Benson

It gives her capacity to deal with the affairs of life, and presence of mind, which enable her to act with vigour and effect in moments of emergency.Samuel Smiles

A great deal of the unhappiness, and much of the vice, of the world is owing to weakness and indecision of purpose—in other words, to lack of courage.Samuel Smiles

Pretended conversions—which invariably jump with party interests are more sudden; and even hypocrisy now appears to be scarcely thought discreditable.Samuel Smiles

Each circle and section, each rank and class, has its respective customs and observances, to which conformity is required at the risk of being tabooed.Samuel Smiles

But it is not always easy to discover the sensitive child, because fear of displeasure will freeze him into a stupor of apparent dullness and stubbornness.Arthur Christopher Benson

Many of our fears do not correspond to any real danger; they are part of a panoply which we inherit, and have to do with the instinct of self-preservation.Arthur Christopher Benson

Long before it works up to man we see this amazing force stemming an uncountable number of attacks, and meeting ruinous conditions with daring contrivances.Basil King

The honest man is naturally antagonistic to fraud, the truthful man to lying, the justice-loving man to oppression, the pureminded man to vice and iniquity.Samuel Smiles

This is a point of vast importance to the individual who desires to strike out beyond the crowd, not only getting what he needs, but ridding himself of fear.Basil King

The will, which is the central force of character, must be trained to habits of decision—otherwise it will neither be able to resist evil nor to follow good.Samuel Smiles

Courage is the main quality of leadership.

Walt Disney

Perhaps this conviction that a man's strength lay in standing single-handed against circumstance was the first small discovery I made in my own fight with fear.Basil King

But we are inside it all, an integral and indestructible part of it; and the shadow of fear falls when we doubt this, when we dread being overlooked or disregarded.Arthur Christopher Benson

And though we may be far from reaching the standard of our hero, we are, to a certain extent, sustained and fortified by his depicted presence constantly before us.Samuel Smiles

It teaches us to be forbearant towards those who differ from us, provided they observe patiently, think honestly, and utter their convictions freely and truthfully.Samuel Smiles

It is so much easier for some men to stoop, to bow, and to flatter, than to be manly, resolute, and magnanimous; and to yield to prejudices than run counter to them.Samuel Smiles

My object had been to ward off fear so that it shouldn't touch me; but to let it strike and rebound because it could make no impact was an enlarging of the principle.Basil King

We are afraid of arousing anger, not because we expect to be assailed by blows and wounds, but because our far-off ancestors expected anger to end in an actual assault.Arthur Christopher Benson

In order to banish fear I think it necessary to train the thought to seeing God as expressing Himself in all the good and pleasant and enjoyable things that come to us.Basil King

But fear, as a rule, being connected with our struggles, it is important, I think, to be as clear as we can concerning the purport of those struggles, and their source.Basil King

And the habit of avoiding fear is, doubtless, capable of being trained like any other habit, such as the habit of attention, of diligence, of study, or of cheerfulness.Samuel Smiles

There may be knacks by which fear can be nipped and expedients by which it may be outwitted, but its extermination can be brought about, it seems to me, only in one way.Basil King

To be in harmony with the life-principle and the conquest-principle is to be in harmony with power; and to be in harmony with power is to be strong as a matter of course.Basil King

There are certain states of society and conditions of affairs in which a man is bound to speak out, and be antagonistic—when conformity is not only a weakness, but a sin.Samuel Smiles

But I do not for a moment think that God will cast me off or turn His face away from me because I have sinned; and I can pray that He will lead me into light and strength.Arthur Christopher Benson

I revert, therefore, to the statement that to make the kind of spiritual progress which will overcome fear it will be often necessary to let go the thing we have outlived.Basil King

I know several people who have had their lives blighted, have been made suspicious, cynical, crafty, and timid, by severe usage and bullying and open contempt in childhood.Arthur Christopher Benson

I say again that I know of no instance among the most intimate records of the human heart, in which life was faced with such splendid courage as it was by Charlotte Bronte.Arthur Christopher Benson

More's daughter, Margaret Roper, on the contrary, encouraged her father to stand firm in his principles, and dutifully consoled and cheered him during his long confinement.Samuel Smiles

But no one can remove danger or regret from us, or relieve us of the necessity of facing our own troubles; the most that they can do, indeed, is to encourage us to try again.Arthur Christopher Benson

But there is one thing which seems to me to have always and invariably hampered and maimed me, whenever I have yielded to it, and I have often yielded to it; and that is Fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

There were three great men of the nineteenth century of whom we know more than we know of most men, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Tennyson, in whose lives fear was a prominent element.Arthur Christopher Benson

What would one feel about Odysseus if, instead of contriving a way out of the Cyclops' cave, he had set himself to consider of what forgotten sin his danger was the consequence?Arthur Christopher Benson

Tennyson's art suffered from the consciousness of his enormous responsibility, and where he failed was from his dread of unpopularity, or his fear of alienating the ordinary man.Arthur Christopher Benson

But they are not like the demons of sin that can hamper and wound; they are just little gnomes and elves that can make a noise, and their strength is a spiteful and a puny thing.Arthur Christopher Benson

There have been many attempts in the history of mankind to escape from the dominion of fear; the essence of fear, that which prompts it, is the consciousness of our vulnerability.Arthur Christopher Benson

We may pray for courage, but we must practise it; and the best way of meeting particular fears is to cultivate interests, distractions, amusements, which may serve to dispel them.Arthur Christopher Benson

One must add the courage which springs from a partial knowledge of the truth to the patience one gets from the understanding that as yet our knowledge of the truth is but partial.Basil King

He does not recognise it as courage if a sensitive, conscientious, and right-minded boy risks unpopularity by telling a master of some evil practice which is spreading in a school.Arthur Christopher Benson

Fear should then rather show us that we are being confronted with experience; and that our duty is to disregard it, to march forward through it, to come out on the other side of it.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is the active motive power of character; and if combined with sagacity and self-possession, will enable a man to employ his powers to the best advantage in all the affairs of life.Samuel Smiles

We are assuredly meant to believe that the coward is to learn the beauty of courage, that the laggard is to perceive the worth of energy, that the selfish man is to be taught sympathy.Arthur Christopher Benson

And the dread of being obscure and unacceptable is what haunts the minds of boys brought up on these ambitious and competitive lines, rather than the fear which is the beginning of wisdom.Arthur Christopher Benson

If I state the results it is once more not because I consider them important to anyone but myself, but only because they became the starting-point of a new advance in the conquest of fear.Basil King

We have already seen that fear is diminished in proportion as we understand that our trials are not motiveless, and perhaps this is the point at which to consider briefly what the motives are.Basil King

Hence, unless the imagination be held under strict discipline, we are prone to meet evils more than halfway—to suffer them by forestalment, and to assume the burdens which we ourselves create.Samuel Smiles

We use life best when we live it eagerly, exulting in its fulness and its significance, casting ourselves into strong relations with others, drinking in beauty, making high music in our hearts.Arthur Christopher Benson

In other words, having to some degree worked my own way out of fear I must tell how I came to feel that I know the Unknowable, doing it with the inexact phraseology which is all I find to hand.Basil King

The worlds in which co-operation is essential, from that of governmental politics to that of offices and homes, are centres of animosities and suspicions, and therefore breeding-grounds of fear.Basil King

Our instinctive fears, such as our fear of darkness and solitude, and our suspicion of strangers, seem to date from a time when such conditions were really dangerous, though they are so no longer.Arthur Christopher Benson

We dress, and eat, and follow fashion, though it may be at the risk of debt, ruin, and misery; living not so much according to our means, as according to the superstitious observances of our class.Samuel Smiles

These pages will contain, then, no recipe for the conquest of fear; they will offer, with much misgiving and diffidence, no more than the record of what one individual has done toward conquering it.Basil King

It is exactly the opposite; it is to show us that we are worth testing, worth developing, and that we are to have the glory of going on; the very fear of death is the last test of our belief in Love.Arthur Christopher Benson

The defence of Lathom House by Charlotte de la Tremouille, the worthy descendant of William of Nassau and Admiral Coligny, was another striking instance of heroic bravery on the part of a noble woman.Samuel Smiles

And in our own time the lives of such men as Clarkson and Granville Sharpe, Father Mathew and Richard Cobden, inspired by singleness of purpose, have shown what highminded social antagonism can effect.Samuel Smiles

Men of this stamp, inspired by a high sense of duty, have in past times exhibited character in its most heroic aspects, and continue to present to us some of the noblest spectacles to be seen in history.Samuel Smiles

The public enunciation of wholesome because disagreeable truths is avoided; and, to win their favour, sympathy is often pretended for views, the carrying out of which in practice is known to be hopeless.Samuel Smiles

Boys in fact are still educated under a system which seems to anticipate a combative and disturbed sort of life to follow, in which strength and agility, violence and physical activity, will have a value.Arthur Christopher Benson

They are not afraid of anything that will be said or done; and yet they will have become intensely conscious of their own appearance and movements and dress, and will be quite unable to command themselves.Arthur Christopher Benson

One need not fear the world more than is necessary—but my only dream of peace was the escape to the delights of home, and the thought of the larger world was only a thing that I shrank from and shuddered at.Arthur Christopher Benson

One must not be afraid of breaking with social custom, if one finds that it leads one into dreary and useless formalities, stupid and expensive entertainments, tiresome gatherings, dull and futile assemblies.Arthur Christopher Benson

To diminish fear we should have it, I think, clearly before us that the human race has done as yet only part of its work, and put us in possession of only part of the resources which will one day belong to us.Basil King

I shall keep myself to the two points of view which have helped me, as an individual, to overcome, to some degree, the fear of death, considering them in reverse order from that in which I have mentioned them.Basil King

Those are conceded to us, to tempt us to live, to make us desire to remain in the world; and we need not be afraid to take them, to use them, to enjoy them; because all things alike help to make us what we are.Arthur Christopher Benson

Experience has proved that women can be as enduring as men, under the heaviest trials and calamities; but too little pains are taken to teach them to endure petty terrors and frivolous vexations with fortitude.Samuel Smiles

The discovery—that is, discovery for myself—that God is Universal, which is not so obvious as it sounds, was, I think, the first great step I made in finding that within that Universal fear should be impossible.Basil King

The deep interest of this experience is that it was endured by one who was not only intellectually endowed beyond most women of her time, but whose sanity, reasonableness, and moral force were conspicuously strong.Arthur Christopher Benson

She never gave way to feeble or morbid self-accusation, and therefore the fact that she could thus have suffered is a sign that this unnamed terror can coexist with a dauntless courage and an essential self-command.Arthur Christopher Benson

In a world which was to any noticeable degree freed from the spectre of fear most of our existing systems of government, religion, business, law, and national and international politics, would have to be remodelled.Basil King

For we are contending not with God, but with the fear which hides Him from our shrinking eyes; and our prayer should be the undaunted prayer of Moses in the clefts of the mountain, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy Glory!"Arthur Christopher Benson

That was a very courageous thing to do, because most people are ashamed of insanity, no doubt from the old sad ignorant tradition that it was the work of demoniacal agencies, and not a mere disease like other diseases.Arthur Christopher Benson

Suffering and disaster come to us to develop our inventiveness and our courage, not to daunt and dismay us; and we ought therefore to approach experience with a sense of humour, if possible, and with a lively curiosity.Arthur Christopher Benson

I dare not say that I regret it all, for we are all of us, whether small or great, being taught a mighty truth, whether we wish it or know it; and all that we can do to hasten it is to put our will into the right scale.Arthur Christopher Benson

One of the grievous fears of life is the fear of seeing ourselves as we really are, in all our baseness and pettiness; yet that will assuredly be shown us in no vindictive spirit, but that we may learn to rise and soar.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is of no use then to imitate Robinson Crusoe, and to make a list of one's blessings on a piece of paper; that only increases our fear, because it is just the chance of forfeiting such blessings of which we are in dread!Arthur Christopher Benson

While respecting the personality of others, it preserves its own individuality and independence; and has the courage to be morally honest, though it may be unpopular, trusting tranquilly to time and experience for recognition.Samuel Smiles

It is this sort of solemn egotism which makes us overvalue our anxieties quite out of all proportion to their importance, because they all appear to us as integral elements of a dignified drama in which we enact the hero's part.Arthur Christopher Benson

Where my life was like a dark and crooked lane in which I might easily be lost, it has now become as an easy and open highway; where money-fear was the very air I breathed, it is now no more than a nebulous shred on a far horizon.Basil King

One may pray as whole-heartedly as one will against the tendency to fear; but it is a great help to realise that the very experiences which seem now so overwhelming had little or no effect upon one in youthful and high-hearted days.Arthur Christopher Benson

At the same time it was to a small detail in my religious training—or to be more exact in the explanation of the Bible given me as a boy—that I harked back when it became plain to me that either I must conquer fear or fear must conquer me.Basil King

The fear then that I felt was an instinctive thing, and was experienced in the inner nature and not in the rational mind; and the perplexity of the situation arises from the fact that such fear cannot be combated by rational considerations.Arthur Christopher Benson

But what the will can do is to try certain experiments, and the one province where its function seems to be clear, is where it can discover that we have often a reserve of unsuspected strength, and more courage and power than we had supposed.Arthur Christopher Benson

And yet when I curb myself, when I force myself to read them, when I force myself to read them sympathetically and with a good wish in my heart, my mental atmosphere grows wider and I am in a stronger, surer, steadier, and more fearless world.Basil King

If we are to avoid the dark onset of fear, we must at all costs simplify life, because the more complicated and intricate our life is, and the more we multiply our defences, the more gates and posterns there are by which the enemy can creep upon us.Arthur Christopher Benson

The fear of life, the frame of mind which says, "This attractive and charming thing captivates me, but I will mistrust it and keep it at arm's length, because if I lose it, I shall experience discomfort," seems to me a poor and timid handling of life.Arthur Christopher Benson

Yet if one believes, as I for one believe, that the secret of the world is somehow hidden in love, and can be interpreted through love alone, then one must run the risks of love, and seek for strength to bear the inevitable suffering which love must bring.Arthur Christopher Benson

Johnson supplies the clearest proof, if proof were needed, that no robustness of temperament, no genius of common sense, no array of rationality, no degree of courage, can save a man from the assaults of fear, and even of fear which the sufferer knows to be unreal.Arthur Christopher Benson

Let me admit that I have more than once in life made grave mistakes through this timidity and indolence, or through an imaginativeness which could see in a great opportunity nothing but a sea of troubles, which would, I do not doubt, have melted away as one advanced.Arthur Christopher Benson

Who does not know the frame of mind when perhaps for a day, perhaps for days together, the mind is oppressed and uneasy, scenting danger in the air, forecasting calamity, recounting all the possible directions in which fate or malice may have power to wound and hurt us?Arthur Christopher Benson

If he is a man of keen sensibilities, the pressure of such care is so insupportable that he takes prompt and effective measures to remove it; and his fear thus becomes an element in his success, because it urges him to action, and at the same time teaches him the need of due precaution.Arthur Christopher Benson

They are the shadows of our childishness, and they show that we have a long journey before us; and they gain their strength from the fact that we gather them together out of the future like the bundle of sticks in the fable, when we shall have the strength to snap them singly as they come.Arthur Christopher Benson

We have a long and toilsome way to travel, and we can by no device abbreviate it; but when we suffer and grieve, we are walking more swiftly to our goal; and the hours we spend in fear, in sending the mind in weariness along the desolate track, are merely wasted, for we can alter nothing so.Arthur Christopher Benson

And there is of course a slow process going on in the world by which this moral restraint is becoming habitual and instinctive; but notably in the case of fear our instinct is a belated one, and results in many causeless and baseless anxieties which our reason in vain assures us are wholly false.Arthur Christopher Benson

For the men who have most powerfully influenced the world have not been so much men of genius as men of strong convictions and enduring capacity for work, impelled by irresistible energy and invincible determination: such men, for example, as were Mahomet, Luther, Knox, Calvin, Loyola, and Wesley.Samuel Smiles

Yet here, I believe, we ought to have no doubt at all; and the man who says to himself, "I should like to bestow my affection on this person and on that, but I will keep it in restraint, because I am afraid of the suffering which it may entail,"—such a man, I say, is very far from the kingdom of God.Arthur Christopher Benson

It seems the most unreal thing in the world, when one is on the other side of it; and yet face to face with it, it has a strength, a poignancy, a paralysing power, which makes it seem like a personal and specific ill-will, issuing in a sort of dreadful enchantment or spell, which renders it impossible to withstand.Arthur Christopher Benson

The weakness of Stoicism was that it despised human relations; and the strength of primitive Christianity was that, while it recommended a Stoical simplicity of life, it taught men not to be afraid of love, but to use and lavish love freely, as being the one thing which would survive death and not be cut short by it.Arthur Christopher Benson

We must rather think of His Heart as full of courage, energy, and hope; as teeming with joy, lightness, zest, mirth; and then we can begin to think of failures, fears, delays as things small and unimportant, not as malicious ambushes, but as rough bits of road, as obstacles to reveal and to develop our strength and gaiety.Arthur Christopher Benson

The issue of all this is that the sort of courage which it enforces is essentially a graceful and showy sort of courage, a lively readiness, a high-hearted fearlessness—so that timidity and slowness and diffidence and unreadiness become base and feeble qualities, when they are not the things of which anyone need be ashamed!Arthur Christopher Benson

Time would fail to tell of the deathless names of those who through faith in principles, and in the face of difficulty, danger, and suffering, "have wrought righteousness and waxed valiant" in the moral warfare of the world, and been content to lay down their lives rather than prove false to their conscientious convictions of the truth.Samuel Smiles

It shows one that though one may have a strong moral and intellectual sense of what is the right and sensible course to take, one may be sadly hampered in carrying it out, by this secret and hidden instinct of which one may be rationally ashamed, but which is characteristic of what seems to be the stronger and more vital part of one's self.Arthur Christopher Benson

It is far more wholesome and encouraging to look upon many disasters that befall us as opportunities to show a little spirit, to evoke the courage which does not come by indolent prosperity, to increase our sympathy, to enlarge our experience, to make things clearer to us, to develop our mind and heart, to free us from material temptations.Arthur Christopher Benson

And the only way to face that is to keep our minds open to any light, to nurture and encourage the wish to be different, to pray hour by hour that at any cost we may be taught the truth; it is useless to search for happy illusions, to look for short cuts, to hope vaguely that strength and virtue will burst out like a fountain beside our path.Arthur Christopher Benson

Yet in that last case the fear suddenly slipped away, without the smallest effort on my part; and in all four cases some strange gusto of experience, some sense of heightened life and adventure, rose in the mind like a fountain—so that even in the crevasse I said to myself, not excitedly but serenely, "So this is what it feels like to await death!"Arthur Christopher Benson

That seems to me a very heroic attitude; while the letter itself, in its perfect frankness and courage, without a touch of solemnity or affectation, or any trace of craven shrinking from his doom, makes it in its noble simplicity one of the finest "last words" that I have ever read, and finer, I verily believe, than any flight of poetical imagination.Arthur Christopher Benson

The patriot who fights an always-losing battle—the martyr who goes to death amidst the triumphant shouts of his enemies—the discoverer, like Columbus, whose heart remains undaunted through the bitter years of his "long wandering woe"—are examples of the moral sublime which excite a profounder interest in the hearts of men than even the most complete and conspicuous success.Samuel Smiles

Of course the more eagerly and enjoyably we live, so much the more we are affected by little incidents, beyond which we can hardly look when they bring us so much pleasure or so much discomfort; and thus it is always the men and women of keen and highly-strung natures, who taste the quality of every moment, in its sweetness and its bitterness, who will most feel the influence of fear.Arthur Christopher Benson

The passive endurance of the man or woman who, for conscience sake, is found ready to suffer and to endure in solitude, without so much as the encouragement of even a single sympathising voice, is an exhibition of courage of a far higher kind than that displayed in the roar of battle, where even the weakest feels encouraged and inspired by the enthusiasm of sympathy and the power of numbers.Samuel Smiles

Without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

Maya Angelou

Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.

Amelia Earhart

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Through my story I want to tell other children all around the world that they should stand up for their rights.

Malala Yousafzai

I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.

Harriet Tubman

Each is liable to panic, which is, exactly, the terror of ignorance surrendered to the imagination.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Each is strong, relying on his own, and each is betrayed when he seeks in himself the courage of others.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

He wishes to break every yoke all over the world which hinders his brother from acting after his thought.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Each surmounts the fear as fast as he precisely understands the peril, and learns the means of resistance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perseverance strips it of all peculiarity, and ranges it on the same ground as other business.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

True courage is not ostentatious; men who wish to inspire terror seem thereby to confess themselves cowards.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are degrees of courage, and each step upward makes us acquainted with a higher virtue.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The head is a half, a fraction, until it is enlarged and inspired by the moral sentiment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do not wish to put myself or any man into a theatrical position, or urge him to ape the courage of his comrade.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The general must stimulate the mind of his soldiers to the perception that they are men, and the enemy is no more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us say then frankly that the education of the will is the object of our existence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

These once seen, he is as cool as Archimedes, and cheerily proceeds a step farther.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is he who has done the deed once who does not shrink from attempting it again.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grew.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Why do they rely on it, but because they know how potent it is with themselves?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For it is always new, leads and surprises, and practice never comes up with it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge is the encourager, knowledge that takes fear out of the heart, knowledge and use, which is knowledge in practice.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a courage of a merchant in dealing with his trade, by which dangerous turns of affairs are met and prevailed over.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To the sailor’s experience every new circumstance suggests what he must do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is the groom who knows the jumping horse well who can safely ride him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The hero could not have done the feat at another hour, in a lower mood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To him a leak, a hurricane, or a water-spout is so much work—no more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A certain quantity of power belongs to a certain quantity of faculty.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Use makes a better soldier than the most urgent considerations of duty,—familiarity with danger enabling him to estimate the danger.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am much mistaken if every man who went to the army in the late war had not a lively curiosity to know how he should behave in action.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The singers, I observe, all yield to it, and so the fair singer indulges her instinct, and dares, and dares, because she knows she can.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The terrific chances which make the hours and the minutes long to the passenger, he whiles away by incessant application of expedients and repairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Morphy played a daring game in chess: the daring was only an illusion of the spectator, for the player sees his move to be well fortified and safe.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Merchants recognize as much gallantry, well judged too, in the conduct of a wise and upright man of business, in difficult times, as soldiers in a soldier.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The sailor loses fear as fast as he acquires command of sails and spars and steam; the frontiersman, when he has a perfect rifle and has acquired a sure aim.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For it is not the means on which we draw, as health or wealth, practical skill or dexterous talent, or multitudes of followers, that count, but the aims only.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The thoughtful man says, you differ from me in opinion and methods; but do you not see that I cannot think or act otherwise than I do? that my way of living is organic?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

How short a time since this whole nation rose every morning to read or to hear the traits of courage of its sons and brothers in the field, and was never weary of the theme!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The political reigns of terror have been reigns of madness and malignity,—a total perversion of opinion; society is upside down, and its best men are thought too bad to live.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The school-boy is daunted before his tutor by a question of arithmetic, because he does not yet command the simple steps of the solution which the boy beside him has mastered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Undoubtedly there is a temperamental courage, a warlike blood, which loves a fight, does not feel itself except in a quarrel, as one sees in wasps, or ants, or cocks, or cats.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity, and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every moment, as long as he is awake, he studies the use of his eyes, ears, hands, and feet, learning how to meet and avoid his dangers, and thus every hour loses one terror more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We have had examples of men who, for showing effective courage on a single occasion, have become a favorite spectacle to nations, and must be brought in chariots to every mass meeting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men are so charmed with valor, that they have pleased themselves with being called lions, leopards, eagles, and dragons, from the animals contemporary with us in the geologic formations.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The hunter is not alarmed by bears, catamounts, or wolves, nor the grazier by his bull, nor the dog-breeder by his bloodhound, nor an Arab by the simoom, nor a farmer by a fire in the woods.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

He is everywhere a liberator, but of a freedom that is ideal; not seeking to have land or money or conveniences, but to have no other limitation than that which his own constitution imposes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In all applications ’tis the same power,—the habit of reference to one’s own mind, as the home of all truth and counsel, and which can easily dispose of any book because it can very well do without all books.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Disinterestedness, as shown in indifference to the ordinary bribes and influences of conduct,—a purpose so sincere and generous that it cannot be tempted aside by any prospects of wealth or other private advantage.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage is equality to the problem, in affairs, in science, in trade, in council, or in action; consists in the conviction that the agents with whom you contend are not superior in strength or resources or spirit to you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every creature has a courage of his constitution fit for his duties:—Archimedes, the courage of a geometer to stick to his diagram, heedless of the siege and sack of the city; and the Roman soldier his faculty to strike at Archimedes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a persuasion in the soul of man that he is here for cause, that he was put down in this place by the Creator to do the work for which he inspires him, that thus he is an overmatch for all antagonists that could combine against him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you have no faith in beneficent power above you, but see only an adamantine fate coiling its folds about nature and man, then reflect that the best use of fate is to teach us courage, if only because baseness cannot change the appointed event.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-love is, in almost all men, such an overweight, that they are incredulous of a man’s habitual preference of the general good to his own; but when they see it proved by sacrifices of ease, wealth, rank, and of life itself, there is no limit to their admiration.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a courage in the treatment of every art by a master in architecture, in sculpture, in painting, or in poetry, each cheering the mind of the spectator or receiver as by true strokes of genius, which yet nowise implies the presence of physical valor in the artist.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The judge puts his mind to the tangle of contradictions in the case, squarely accosts the question, and, by not being afraid of it, by dealing with it as business which must be disposed of, he sees presently that common arithmetic and common methods apply to this affair.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

There is a courage of the cabinet as well as a courage of the field; a courage of manners in private assemblies, and another in public assemblies; a courage which enables one man to speak masterly to a hostile company, whilst another man who can easily face a cannon’s mouth dares not open his own.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The third excellence is courage, the perfect will, which no terrors can shake, which is attracted by frowns or threats or hostile armies, nay, needs these to awake and fan its reserved energies into a pure flame, and is never quite itself until the hazard is extreme; then it is serene and fertile, and all its powers play well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you accept your thoughts as inspirations from the Supreme Intelligence, obey them when they prescribe difficult duties, because they come only so long as they are used; or, if your scepticism reaches to the last verge, and you have no confidence in any foreign mind, then be brave, because there is one good opinion which must always be of consequence to you, namely, your own.

Ralph Waldo Emerson