Quotes About Courage

I had very little idea of what I was supposed to be doing, so I set out to learn. What I essentially did was to put one foot in front of the other, shut my eyes, and step off the edge.

It's hard to remake decisions and even harder to rethink nondecisions. Sometimes you don't really decide, you just move forward, and that is what I did—moved forward blindly and mindlessly into a new and unknown life.

I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone.

The thing about life is that you must survive. Life is going to be difficult, and dreadful things will happen. What you do is move along, get on with it, and be tough. Not in the sense of being mean to others, but being tough with yourself and making a deadly effort not to be defeated.

Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking.

The hope you get from religion is a three-ring, all-star hope because the risk is outrageous.

Ain't 'cha gonna run? she asked. No, he said, shoving the sheet away. I'm gonna fly.

All my dreams of leaving, but beneath them I was afraid to go. I had clung to them, to Rass, yes, even to my grandmother, afraid that if I loosened my fingers an iota, I would find myself once more cold and clean in a forgotten basket.

life ain't supposed to be nothing, 'cept maybe tough

Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.

Bridge to Terabithia takes us by the hand and leads us into a room that we have never entered before. After we read this story, we cannot unknow what we now know. We are devastated, emotionally rent. But still: we feel held, loved, seen. Someone trusted us enough to tell us the truth; and because of that, the room is golden, brimful of light.

Katherine Paterson

she had stood at the gate of her compound and told the Japanese soldiers there that if they tried to come in and get her girls, they would have to do it across her dead body. This

It is the principle of the things, Jess. That is what you have got to understand. You have to stop people like that. Otherwise they run into tyrants and dictators.

She wasn't scared of going deep, deep down in a world of no air and little light

This story is about John, who was a private in the 2nd Georgia Battalion Infantry. I had always been told that John had taken part in Pickett's Charge, the bloody assault on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863. Actually he was mortally wounded very close to Cemetery Hill on July 2 the day before that tragic charge.

Whoever heard of a king who was scared of tall trees and a little bit of water?

He may not have been born with guts, but he did not have to die without them.

One of the novels that was hardest for me to write had to deal with the horrible slaughter of war. I almost didn't finish Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom for just that reason.

I stayed with the Navajo for several years. I had no idea how to get home! But one day another captured New Mexican arrived. He was a boy, just twelve or so, but he told me he knew how to get back to the nearest town. He was determined to run away, and when the time came, I—I ran with him.

Isn't love worth taking a risk?

This is another day, O Lord... If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.

My father goaded me over my disinterest, not quite calling me a coward yet wondering, "What are you afraid of, son?" He didn't expect me to be a hunter but wanted me to hold a weapon in my hands without flinching. Silent of mouth, I would reply in my mind, This device is made to kill at worst, to maim at best. But I made myself say, "Nothing, Father. I'm not afraid." So I learned to shoot.

Five years later those fellows were all gone, their capital vanished like so much cigar smoke, while I churned out the only commodities that still held their value: courage, poise, humor, and hope.