Fear Quotes
Shakespeare leads, with Bertrand Russell second by a distance and then a mixed group of novelists. Russell is the one to read here. In Dreams and Facts (1919) he says no man is liberated from fear who dare not see his place in the world as it is, and in Marriage and Morals (1929) that to fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Three entries are flagged. “The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself” is credited to Publilius Syrus and is disputed. A parody of the twenty-third Psalm credited to General Patton is marked misattributed. So is “None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear,” credited to Marshal Foch.
I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.
Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
The person you are the most afraid to contradict is yourself.
It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man.
Depend on me; never fear your enemies. I'll warrant we make more noise than they.