Quotes About Fear

La causa más común de los errores humanos —escribió más tarde el cardenal de Retz— es temer demasiado el peligro presente y no lo suficiente el peligro remoto.

In the evolution of fear, a decisive moment occurred in the nineteenth century when people in advertising and journalism discovered that if they framed their stories and appeals with fear, they could capture our attention.

fear is an emotion we find hard to resist or control

It seems abusive or damaging to people's self-esteem to offer them stern, realistic criticism, to set them tasks that will make them aware of how far they have to go. In fact, this indulgence and fear of hurting people's feelings is far more abusive in the long run. It makes it hard for people to gauge where they are or to develop self-discipline. It makes them unsuited for the rigors of the journey to mastery. It weakens people's will.

Travel is sold as freedom, but we were about as free as lab rats. This is how they'll manage the next Holocaust, I thought, as I shuffled forward in my stockinged feet: they'll simply issue us with air tickets and we'll do whatever we're told

In fact fear is probably the strongest human emotion, period. Whoever woke at four in the morning because they were feeling happy?

If you are afraid of wolves, keep out of the woods. - J. V. Stalin, 1936

Brave words. Easy to write when one was young and death was still skulking over a distant hill somewhere... - Pg. 82

This is the nightmare I have always dreaded. It's as if we've learned nothing from the last war and we are reliving August 1914. One by one the countries of the world will be dragged in - and for what?

Really, take it from me: it is always the unknown that is most frightening.

If I were convinced that any nation had made up its mind to dominate the world by fear of its force, I should feel that it must be resisted. Under such a domination, life for people who believe in liberty would not be worth living. But war is a fearful thing, and we must be very clear, before we embark on it, that it is really the great issues that are at stake, and that the call to risk everything in their defence, when all the consequences are weighed, is irresistible.

How odd it is, thought March afterwards, to live your life in ignorance of the past, of your world, yourself. Yet how easy to do it! You went along from day to day, down paths other people had prepared for you, never raising your head - enfolded in their logic, from swaddling clothes to shroud. It was a kind of fear. Well, goodbye to that. And good to leave it behind - whatever happened now. - 214

he possessed for attractive form of courage: bravery of a nervous man. After all, any rash fool can be a hero if he sets no value on his life or hasn't the wit to appreciate the danger. But to understand the risks, perhaps even to flinch at first, but then summon the strength to face them down--that is my opinion is the most commendable for of value...

war was long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

Fear is historically the strongest emotion in economics. Remember FDR in the Great Depression? It's the most famous quote in financial history: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." In fact fear is probably the strongest human emotion, period. Whoever woke at four in the morning because they were feeling happy?

I know the internet is the stuff a paranoiac's dreams are made of.

Com'è strano, pensò più tardi March, vivere la tua vita nell'ignoranza del passato, del tuo mondo, di te stesso. Eppure era così facile! Tiravi avanti giorno per giorno, seguendo il percorso che altri avevano tracciato per te, senza alzare mai la testa...sempre avvolto nella loro logica...dalla culla alla tomba. Era una sorta di paura. Bene, addio a tutto. Era una bella cosa lasciarselo alle spalle...qualunque cosa dovesse accadere adesso.

Go and do your business, Mr Nayler. There will soon be heads on spikes all over London. But bear in mind that one day one of them may be mine.

Sí, a él también. Pero de quien me preocuparía

He was shaking violently. He had to clench his teeth to stop them chattering. And yet, oddly, he felt no panic. Panic was quite different to fear, he was discovering. Panic was moral and nervous collapse, a waste of precious energy, whereas fear was all sinew and instinct: an animal that stood up on its hind legs and filled you completely, that took control of your brain and your muscles.

When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, Who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know Of love's austere and lonely offices?

It scared him a little. He had once heard, and was inclined to credit, that a loss of interest in living marked the true turning point in the battle between anabolisim and catabolism-old age.

you were both hunter and hunted; the shadow of your thoughts was the beast which killed you.

A hundred years ago they'd have burned you as a witch… But I'm not a witch. I don't suppose any of them were.