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:
— How can a man be brave when he's afraid ?
— It is the only time a man can be brave.
Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
I’ll say this for the Queen. She was brave—or possibly stupid. It’s easy to mistake the two.
What's brave, what's noble,
Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us.
"Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"
"That is the only time a man can be brave."
The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.
Stop shallow water still running, it will rage; tread on a worm and it will turn.
Why, courage then! what cannot be avoided
'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear.