Quotes About Courage

To endure is greater than to dare to tire out hostile fortune to be daunted by no difficulty to keep heart when all have lost it -- who can say this is not greatness

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

Go not as told by others, But by other ways go.

Lev Beniov:] "The imminence of death did not frighten me as much as it should have. I had been too afraid for too long; I was too exhausted, too hungry, too feel anything with proper intensity. But if my fear had diminished, it was not because my courage had increased. My body was so weak, so spent, that my legs trembled from the effort of standing upright. I could summon no great concern for anything, including the fate of Lev Beniov.

I didn't know if we were heading for the gallows or an interrogation chamber. The night had passed without sleep; save for a swig from the German's flask, there hadn't been a sip to drink since the rooftop of the Kirov; a lump the size of an infant's fist had swelled where my forehead had cracked the ceiling- it was a bad morning, really; among my worst- but I wanted to live.

fear is part of our inheritance. Lev from "City of Thieves

Your mother and sister weren't on the radio telling us all to be brave. Look, I don't expect composers and poets to be heroes. I just don't like hypocrites.

Kolya seemed fearless, but everyone has fear in them somewhere; fear is part of our inheritance. Aren't we descended from timid little shrews who cowered in the shadows while the great beasts stomped past? Cannibals and Nazis didn't make Kolya nervous, but the threat of embarrassment did-- the possibility that a stranger might laugh at the lines he's written,

Lihatlah bajingan-bajingan itu mengencingi tanah kita. Mereka tak akan tertawa sekeras itu ketika aku berjongkok dan buang air besar di tengah-tengah Berlin. Mungkin itulah sebabnya aku tidak bisa mengeluarkan tinja. Ususku menunggu kemenangan.

it is easier to hide your fear when you're afraid all the time.

everyone has fear in them somewhere; fear is part of our inheritance.

The realization that she could feel the old longings and feelings of being abandoned without disintegrating gave her courage to start reaching out for social contact again.

My only fear is the unknown.

The main thing that gets us men into dangerous situations is, well, ourselves. It's the belief, cherished in the heart of every man in the world--single and married, young and old--that he is James Bond. . . . And while most of us don't carry guns, we do have something in our pants that frequently gets us into foolhardy situations.

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success." —Ernest Shackleton, advertisement for crew for 1914 Antarctic expedition

T]here is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order."17

Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity.

Turn and face the strange changes.

If you feel safe in the area you're working in, you're not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting.

We can be heroes just for one day

I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine... gentle yet courageous, possessed, has a cultivated as well as a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own to approve or amend my plans.' Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1819

Courage, I now see, is a journey involving self-doubt and self-examination, with the end never in sight.

You can't counter a heroic impulse with a mundane and bourgeois response. You can counter it only with a more compelling heroic vision.

The hero becomes strongest at his weakest point.