Quotes About Courage

Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it even with the best right but without inner constraint proves that he is probably not only strong, but also daring to the point of recklessness.

One should adopt only those situations in which is in no need of sham virtues, but rather, like the tight-rope dancer on his tight rope, in which one must either fall or stand - or escape

Knowest thou not who is most needed by all? He who commandeth great things. To execute great things is difficult: but the more difficult task is to command great things.

Back then you carried your ashes to the mountain; would you now carry your fire into the alley?

love of truth is something fearsome and mighty.

They cast injustice and filth at the solitary one: but, my brother, if you would be a star, you must shine for them none the less on that account!

What makes heroic? – To go to meet simultaneously one's greatest sorrow and one's greatest hope.

For, believe me, the secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously!

Since I grew weary of the search I taught myself to find instead Since cross winds caused my ship to lurch I sail with all winds straight ahead.

I see many soldiers; could I but see many warriors!

Did he even grasp this himself, this cleverest of all self-outwitters? Did he tell himself this in the end, in the wisdom of his courage in the face of death? . . . Socrates wanted to die: not Athens, but he gave himself the poison cup, he forced Athens to give him the poison cup . . . "Socrates is no doctor," he said to himself softly, "death is the only doctor here . . . Socrates himself has just been sick for a long time.

Man, however, is the most courageous animal: thereby has he overcome every animal. With sound of triumph has he overcome every pain; human pain, however, is the sorest pain.

Preparatory human beings. — I welcome all signs that a more virile, warlike age is about to begin, which will restore honor to courage above all! For this age shall prepare the way for one yet higher, and it shall gather the strength that this higher age will require some day — the age that will carry heroism into the search for knowledge and that will wage wars for the sake of ideas and their consequences.

Do not let yourself be deceived: great spirits are sceptical. Zarathustra is a sceptic. The power, the freedom that comes from the strength and super-strength of spirit, proves itself through scepticism.

I undertook something that not everyone may undertake: I descended into the depths, I bored into the foundations

What makes one heroic?— Going out to meet at the same time one's highest suffering and one's highest hope.

We are conducting an experiment with truth! Perhaps mankind will perish because of it! Fine!

But one day solitude will make you weary, one day your pride will buckle and your courage gnash its teeth. One day you will cry, 'I am alone!

There is no true scholar who has not the instincts of a true soldier in his veins. To be able to command and to be able to obey in a proud fashion; to keep one's place in rank and file, and yet to be ready at any moment to lead; to prefer danger to comfort; not to weigh what is permitted and what is forbidden in a tradesman's balance; to be more hostile to pettiness, slyness, and parasitism than to wickedness. What is is that one learns in a hard school? To obey and to command.

best thing in a great victory is that it deprives the conqueror of the fear of defeat.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.

War and courage have done more great things than charity. Not your sympathy, but your bravery hath hitherto saved the victims. What is good? ye ask. To be brave is good. Let the little girls say: To be good is what is pretty, and at the same time touching.

the secret of realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships out into uncharted seas! Live in conflict with your equals and with yourselves! Be robbers and ravagers as long as you cannot be rulers and owners, you men of knowledge!…(283).

Boldness is as natural an attribute of thought as thought is a natural attribute of freedom. . . . Man would still prefer to will Nothingness than not to will.