quotations about courage
It sometimes requires courage to fly from danger.
MARIA EDGEWORTH
Mademoiselle Panache
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
C. S. LEWIS
The Unquiet Grave
Courage and timidity are the accompaniments of opposite tendencies of thought. The brave think only of the blows they will strike; the timid of those they may receive.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.
ASTER & RICHTER ABEND
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
attributed, Life of Samuel Johnson
It is in great dangers that we see great courage.
JEAN FRANÇOIS REGNARD
Le Légataire
Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
Reader's Digest, May 1979
I believe there is no other difference between those who are called courageous and those who are branded craven than that the second are fearful before the danger and the first after it. No one can be much frightened, certainly, during a period of great and immanent peril -- the mind is too much concentrated on the thing itself, and on the actions necessary to meet or avoid it. The coward is a coward, then, because he has brought his fear with him; persons we think cowardly will sometimes amaze us by their bravery, if they have had no forewarning of their danger.
GENE WOLFE
The Claw of the Conciliator
It is easier to die bravely than to live so.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Courage is the price life exacts for granting peace.
AMELIA EARHART
attributed, Another Country
The brave man is intelligent; he faces danger because he understands it and is prepared to meet it. The drunkard who runs, in the delirium of intoxication, into a burning house is not brave; he is only stupid. But the clear-eyed hero who makes his way, with every sense alert and every nerve strung, into the hell of flames to rescue some little child, proves his courage.
HENRY VAN DYKE
"Courage,", Counsels by the Way
Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men … 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…. In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge 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
Profiles in Courage
Courage, the footstool of the Virtues, upon which they stand.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
The Great North Road
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.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims and Reflections
Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
oration at Plymouth, 1802
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", Saturday Evening Post, May 9, 1942
Courage is when you make a change,
And you keep on living anyway
You keep on moving anyway
You keep on giving anyway
ORIANTHI
"Courage", Believe (II)
Courage is the only asset
That will conquer in the fight
If you have the will to mass it
On the lines of truth and right.
JACK CRAWFORD
"The Harvest"
Courage is freely available to all of us and to any one of us as the sounds of waves crashing, of wind in high trees, of birds singing, of human laughter. Those sounds, too, are always there, but sometimes we don't hear them. Wanting to hear them, readying ourselves to hear them, we need to turn our attention towards them. Courage can be like that. We need to turn our attention towards it, pay it more attention than we do our fears, even when those fears are clamorous, clingy, familiar and demanding.
STEPHANIE DOWRICK
Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love