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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 Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories (1971)

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Courage

More quotes by Roger Zelazny

At the end of the season of sorrows comes the time of rejoicing. Spring, like a well-oiled clock, noiselessly indicates this time.

The Last Defender of Camelot (1980)

Between the black of yesterday and the white of tomorrow is the great gray of today, filled with nostalgia and fear of the future.

The Dream Master (1966)

Anyone who rushes toward an unknown peril simply to satisfy a desire for excitement is a fool.

Today We Choose Faces (1973)

There comes a time in the history of all bureaucracies when they must inevitably parody their own functions.

Isle of the Dead (1969)

To struggle against the dreamers who dream ugliness, be they men or gods, cannot but be the will of the Nameless.

Lord of Light (1967)

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Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1599)

All doubt is cowardice — all trust is brave.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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

Sanu Sharma

Christianity offers reasons for not fearing death or the universe, and in so doing it fails to teach adequately the virtue of courage.

Bertrand Russell Education and the Social Order (1932)

Attribution

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