Courage Quotes
The quotes worth a second look here are the quiet ones. In Dryden’s Amphitryon (1690) a character says he is “whistling to keep myself from being afraid”, which is still a fair description of how most courage works. Samuel Johnson, according to Boswell (1791), said courage is so necessary to virtue that it is respected even when it goes along with vice. Nassim Taleb, in The Bed of Procrustes (2010), has it the other way round from the usual advice: mental clarity is the child of courage, not the reverse. The psychologist Rollo May is the most-quoted modern writer here.
Two of the page’s better-known quotes are flagged as misattributed: the Churchill line about the courage to continue, which has no traceable source (see Success), and a passage on the courage of our questions that is credited to Carl Sagan.
Most quoted on courage:
My poems please the brave:
My poems, short and sincere,
Have the force of steel
Which forges swords.
Exercises cultivated self-reliance - the foundation of courage.
Courage is more important than to be deceived by shallow victory waiting for a delayed defeat.
Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to daze, iron to bind.
True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job.
Give encouragement (the incentive to action) — you will have courage and be encouraged.
Listz was undoubtedly encouraged in his revolutionary aims by Wagner's fiery courage.
Self-possession without self-sufficiency. Courage without effrontery.
Self-fulfillment and Growth are some of the most courageous acts on this planet