Quotes About Courage

A man is honorable in proportion to the personal risks he takes for his opinion.

The opposite of manliness isn't cowardice; it's technology.

The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent.

A half-man (or, rather, half-person) is not someone who does not have an opinion, just someone who does not take risks for it.

If you do not take risks for your opinion, you're nothing.

Freedom is always associated with risk taking, whether it leads to it or comes from it.

A man is honorable in proportion to the personal risks he takes for his opinion—in

Do not pay attention to what people say, only to what they do, and how much of their necks they are putting on the line.

If you take risks and face your fate with dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small. If you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand. Nothing. And when you take risks, insults by half-men, small men, those who don't risk anything, are similar to barks by non-human animals. You can't feel insulted by a dog.

respect for the weak being, after intellectual courage, the second most attractive quality to this author)

in Arabic it is called Shhm—best translated as nonsmall. If you take risks and face your fate with dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small; if you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.

For instance, having an intense emotional shock from seeing a snake coming out of my keyboard or a vampire entering my room, followed by a period of soothing safety (with chamomile tea and baroque music) long enough for me to regain control of my emotions, would be beneficial for my health, provided of course that I manage to overcome the snake or vampire after an arduous, hopefully heroic fight and have a picture taken next to the dead predator.

from increasing the number of people in the "tails," that small, very small number of risk takers crazy enough to have ideas of their own, those endowed with

that very rare ability called imagination, that rarer quality called courage, and who make things happen.

studying courage in textbooks doesn't make you any more courageous than eating cow meat makes you bovine.

If you take risks and face your fate with dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small; if you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.

If you see a fraud and don't say fraud, you are a fraud.

Sticking up for truth when it is unpopular is far more of a virtue, because it costs you something—your reputation.

If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.

Courage (risk taking) is the highest virtue. We need entrepreneurs.

Greenspan's actions were harmful, but even if he knew that, it would have taken a bit of heroic courage to justify inaction in a democracy where the incentive is to always promise a better outcome than the other guy, regardless of the actual, delayed cost.

Sacrifice for the sake of the group is behind the notion of heroism:

For those readers who wonder about the difference between Buddhism and Stoicism, I have a simple answer. A Stoic is a Buddhist with attitude, one who says "f*** you" to fate.

Note that in traditional societies even those who fail—but have taken risks—have a higher status than those who are not exposed.