Quotes About Fear

The long pause before action was always hard to bear, but now in a few seconds everything would vanish but for the living instant – no sadness, no time for fear.

Oh, there you are. I was afraid you had gone off to your stoats again. The carrier has brought you an ape.' 'What sort of an ape?' asked Stephen. 'A damned ill-conditioned sort of an ape.

I remember the fact of extreme, prostrating terror,' he said ... but the inward nature of the emotion now escapes me.

Those of us who refuse to risk and grow get swallowed up by life.

Risks are a measure of people. People who won't take them are trying to preserve what they have. People who do take them often end up having more. Some risks have a future, and some people call them wrong. But being right may be like walking backwards proving where you've been. Being wrong isn't in the future, or in the past. Being wrong isn't anywhere but being here. Best place to be, eh?

Start taking bad decisions and it will take you to a place where others only dream of being.

Even when we want to be timid and play it safe, we should pause for a moment to imagine what we might be missing.

But there was never any knowing or any certitude; the time to come always had more than one possible direction. One could not even give up hope. The wind would blow, the sand would settle, and in some as yet unforeseen manner time would bring about a change which could only be terrifying, since it would not be a continuation of the present.

You know what?" he said with great earnestness. "I think we're both afraid of the same thing. And for the same reason. We've never managed, either one of us, to get all the way into life. We're hanging on to the outside for all we're worth, convinced we're going to fall off at the next bump. Isn't that true?

Frightfulness is never more than an unfamiliar pattern.

Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well.

Security is a false god; begin making sacrifices to it and you are lost.

Excessive and persistent levels of fear create changes in brain function that then interfere with decision-making processes.

Fear-based cultures foster short-term thinking: you become defensive, seek to avoid confrontation or reprisal and focus on eliminating any threats instead of working together to deliver shared targets and outcomes.

Fear… is the most depressing of all the emotions; and it soon induces utter, helpless prostration, as if in consequence of, or in association with, the most violent and prolonged attempts to escape have actually been made.

Fear is never healthy in an organization. It doesn't encourage positive action; instead it destroys motivation and productivity, and undermines your confidence and morale.

When a leader is excited about a project, or trusts the people in the team, this too is infectious; fears are calmed and people are inspired to do their best.

Leaders therefore need to be able to calm their own fight/ flight/ freeze emotions of anger, disgust, shame and sadness, but most especially of fear so that they don't get passed on to others.

In many organizations not a decision can be made without calling a meeting. Fear of making a mistake trumps the willingness to take risks. And without some risk-taking there is little chance of creating an exciting future. So rather than risking a decision, leaders and managers have meetings.

Fear experiences can produce dramatic changes in the brain's architecture, resulting in profound alterations in our assumptions and perceptions.

Ye that are slaves of the self and toil in its service from morn until night, ye that live in constant fear of birth, old age, sickness, and death, receive the good tidings that your cruel master exists not. Self is an error, an illusion, a dream. Open your eyes and awaken. See things as they are and ye will be comforted. He who is awake will no longer be afraid of nightmares. He who has recognized the nature of the rope that seemed to be a serpent will cease to tremble.

Monsters were one thing. She was used to monsters, she could deal with monsters. A noise in the darkness, with nothing attached to it, was another.

People call love sickness heartache, but that's not where you feel rejection. Your heart only responds to excitement and fear - racing, pounding, skipping beats. You feel rejection in the pit of your stomach. It's like the moment you realise you've eaten bad food, and you know that all you've got to look forward to is a night of twisted torment and twisted sheets.

Physical courage is the type involved in overcoming the fear of physical injury or death in order to save others or oneself. Moral courage entails maintaining ethical integrity or authenticity at the risk of losing friends, employment, privacy, or prestige. Psychological courage includes that sort required to confront a debilitating illness or destructive habit or situation; it is the bravery inherent in facing one's inner demons.