Famous Quotes & Sayings

Henry David Thoreau

Each reaching and aspiration is an instinct with which all nature consists and cöoperates, and therefore it is not in vain. But alas! each relaxing and desperation is an instinct too. To be active, well, happy, implies courage. To be ready to fight in a duel or a battle implies desperation, or that you hold your life cheap.

Henry David Thoreau

The three-o'-clock in the morning courage, which Bonaparte thought was the rarest.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Remember that nothing really important ever happens until someone takes a chance.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It is not our criminal actions that require courage to confess, but those which are ridiculous and foolish.

Jeremy Collier

True courage is the result of reasoning. A brave mind is always impregnable. Resolution lies more in the head than in the veins, and a just sense of honor and of infamy, of duty and of religion, will carry us farther than all the force of mechanism.

Harriet Lerner

It is an act of courage to acknowledge our own uncertainty and sit with it for a while.

Harriet Lerner

The bolder and more courageous you are, the more you will learn about yourself.

Harper Lee

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.

Holly Near

Something happens to me when I witness someone's courage. They may not know I'm watching and I might not let them know. But something happens to me that will last me for a lifetime. To fill me when I'm empty, and rock me when I'm low.

James Freeman Clarke

The bravest of individuals is the one who obeys his or her conscience.

James Freeman Clarke

Conscience is the root of all true courage.

James Freeman Clarke

This is the way to cultivate courage: First, by standing firm on some conscientious principle, some law of duty. Next, by being faithful to truth and right on small occasions and common events. Third, by trusting in God for help and power.

Gerald R. Ford

In the age-old contest between popularity and principle, only those willing to lose for their convictions are deserving of posterity's approval.

Jessamyn West

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

Harold B. Lee

It is not the function of religion to answer all the questions about God's moral government of the universe, but to give us courage through faith to go on in the face of questions to which we find no answer in our present status.

Haile Selassie

We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.

Howard Thurman

There is a quiet courage that comes from an inward spring of confidence in the meaning and significance of life. Such courage is an underground river, flowing far beneath the shifting events of one's experience, keeping alive a thousand little springs of action.

Howard Schultz

I realize that idealism is out of sync with the cynicism of our age. Skepticism has come to be synonymous with sophistication, and glibness is mistaken for intelligence. In such an atmosphere, why bother aiming high? Far too many people don't. I just want to reassure people to have the courage to persevere, to keep following their hearts even when others scoff. Don't be beaten down by naysayers. Don't let the odds scare you from even trying.

Howard Cosell

Then there is a still higher type of courage - the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead.

Herbert has been an inspiration to us, ... It took courage for Herbert to do what he has done and to experience what Herbert has experienced.

Hyman Rickover

Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.

J. R. R. Tolkien

The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?

J. R. R. Tolkien

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.

J. R. R. Tolkien

Courage is found in unlikely places.

Immanuel Kant

Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses.

Immanuel Kant

Do the right thing because it is right.

Immanuel Kant

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know!

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is no thing we cannot overcome Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, And calls down punishment that is not merited...

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger....

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love of fame, fear of disgrace, schemes for advancement, desire to make life comfortable and pleasant, and the urge to humiliate others are often at the root of the valour men hold in such high esteem.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.