quotations about fear
The boundaries between fear and other emotions are not clear-cut. How does fear differ from dread, consternation or surprise? Anger, disgust, hatred and horror all contain elements of fear. Jealousy may be understood as fear of losing one's partner; guilt may be fear of God's punishment; shame may be fear of humiliation. I history of fear would be rendered meaningless if all negative emotional states were classified as 'really' being fear states.
JOANNA BOURKE
Fear: A Cultural History
I used to think the reason I'd like to stop letting fear run my life was that it felt so bad to be afraid, and also that it was pointless--possibly wasted, if the feared thing never did materialize. But now that fear has packed its miserable bags and is running out the door, making slamming noises to call attention to itself, I begin to see how much room fear has occupied. What opportunity opens up!
JAN FRAZIER
When Fear Falls Away
Fear will bind you closer than love, or hate, and it works a hell of a lot quicker.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Guilty Pleasures
The fear in my heart was like in one of those dreams where you try to run but you can't do it, you can't run because the fear is an anchor in your chest.
WALTER MOSLEY
Fear Itself
Face your fears or they will climb over your back.
FRANK HERBERT
Chapterhouse: Dune
Fear hath a numerous progeny.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
You are frightened of everything. You call it caution. You call it common sense. You call it practicality. You call it playing the odds, but that's only because you're afraid to call it by its real name, and its real name is fear.
MICK FARREN
Darklost
Fear invites aggression--do not show it to a predator.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
The Butlerian Jihad
When we fear things I think that we wish for them ... every fear hides a wish.
DAVID MAMET
Edmond
Oh, we can populate the dark with horrors, even we who think ourselves informed and sure, believing nothing we cannot measure or weigh. I know beyond all doubt that the dark things crowding in on me either did not exist or were not dangerous to me, and still I was afraid.
JOHN STEINBECK
Travels with Charley: In Search of America
If there is one thing which I would banish from the earth it is fear.
HENRY FORD
Theosophist Magazine, Feb. 1930
Fear is a fantastic marketing tool.
DANIEL GARDNER
The Science of Fear
Fear, true fear, is a savage frenzy. Of all the insanities of which we are capable, it is surely the cruelest. There is naught to equal its drive, and naught can survive its thrust.
GEORGES BERNANOS
A Diary of My Times
Fear is contagious. You can catch it.
NEIL GAIMAN
The Graveyard Book
To him who is in fear everything rustles.
SOPHOCLES
Acrisius [fragment]
Not to fear where there is occasion, is as great a weakness as to fear unduly, without reason.... Fear is a kind of bell, or gong, which rings the mind into quick life and avoidance upon the approach of danger.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
Fear is the brother of hate.
LARRY NIVEN
Ringworld
Fear is prophetical of evil.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
All is well, tho' faith and form
Be sunder'd in the night of fear.
ALFRED
LORD TENNYSON, In Memoriam
Fear is the enemy of logic.
FRANK SINATRA
quoted in The Way You Wear Your Hat