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Fear is real and there is nothing you can do about it except to keep functioning, keep your hands and legs and body moving, your mind focused on the task at hand.

— Alvah Bessie Men in Battle: A Story of Americans in Spain (1939)

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Fear

More quotes by Alvah Bessie

Sunny Spain, land of mañana, where nothing was done today that could be put off till tomorrow!

Men in Battle (1939)

You cannot really believe in the existence of a foreign country until you see it.

Men in Battle (1939)

Those Americans who went to Spain to fight Franco and stave off World War II have never minded being called "premature anti-fascists." They were proud of the label.

Men in Battle (1939)

Ahead, muffled by distance, was the sound of artillery in the night- always more terrifying than it is by day, though less effective.

Whenever the mind has led the body to an important decision, events have a way of assuming, momentarily, a half-symbolic nature. The mind plays that trick on you, and everything you see seems to partake of the quality of the decision you have made.

Men in Battle (1939)

All Alvah Bessie quotes →

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alvah Bessie (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.