Quotes About Fear

Every one imagines that fear and anger, violence and desire, rage laced with the surprise capacity to forgive—character—is all that matters in the end.

There are so many names for the thing that everyone is scared to death of, and everyone wants to tell you theirs.

The only thing that will kill you is failing to leap.

The game seems childish, at first. But all of art is childish, all storytelling, all human hope and fear.

People would rather die in invented safety than live in invigorating fear.

All of art is childish, all storytelling, all human hope and fear.

Death is everywhere, oppressive and beautiful.

What frightens people most will one day turn to wonder.

A woman in the coda of life, raising her eyes and lifting her hands in that moment just before fear turns into knowledge.

My virologist friends are always bioengineering viruses. I could see a bioengineered strain of smallpox getting into a terrorist's hands, and that's my fear. And then when we get a terrorist attack with smallpox, and the smallpox doesn't respond to the vaccine, we're in trouble.

There was one case in which a man in Level 4 suddenly began screaming, "Get me out of here!"—and he tore off his space suit's helmet, taking great gasps of air from Level 4. (They dragged him into a chemical shower and kept him there for a while.)

The classic Ebola face made the monkeys look as if they had seen something beyond comprehension.

The few explosions did not seem a miracle of deliverance to the civilians of the enemy cities upon whom the bombs would be dropped.

there are not many horrors as efficient for the generation of deep anger and terrible lifelong insecurity as the inability of a father to protect his child.

people are more likely to refrain from violence out of preference for a nonviolent existence than they are to do so out of fear of punishment.

there was very little doubt in my mind that the world was headed for grief.

Whenever I feel afraid I hold my head erect and whistle a happy tune.

The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling, or changing, or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo – even when it's not working. It attaches to past and present and fears the future.

Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell.

It is almost impossible to fall in love with majesty, power, or perfection. These make us fearful and codependent, but seldom truly loving. On some level, love can only happen between equals, and vulnerability levels the playing field. What Christians believe is that God somehow became our equal when he became the human Jesus, a name that is, without doubt, the vulnerable name for God.

What the ego (the False Self) hates and fears more than anything else is change. It will think up a thousand other things to be concerned about or be moralistic about—anything rather than giving up "who I think I am" and "who I need to be to look good.

Bonaventure's theology is never about trying to placate a distant or angry God, earn forgiveness, or find some abstract theory of justification. He is all cosmic optimism and hope! Once it lost this kind of mysticism, Christianity became preoccupied with fear, unworthiness, and guilt much more than being included in—and delighting in—an all-pervasive plan that is already in place.

The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling or changing or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo, even when it is not working. It attaches to past and present, and fears the future.

That's what happens in the early stages of contemplation. We wait in silence. In silence all our usual patterns assault us. Our patterns of control, addiction, negativity, tension, anger, and fear assert themselves. That's why most people give up rather quickly. When Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, the first things that show up are wild beasts (Mark 1:13). Contemplation is not first of all consoling. It's only real.