Quotes About Courage

Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and a stream with trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond.

I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.

He'll never be frightened. He knows too damn much.

Go all the way with it. Do not back off. For once, go all the goddamn way with what matters.

If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.

He was just a coward and that was the worst luck any many could have.

It could be worse,' Passini said respectfully. There is nothing worse than war. Defeat is worse. I do not believe it, Passini said still respectfully. What is defeat? You go home.

There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.

Nobody climbs on skis now and almost everybody breaks their legs but maybe it is easier in the end to break your legs than to break your heart although they say that everything breaks now and that sometimes, afterwards, many are stronger at the broken places.

Never be daunted

Take a good rest, small bird, he said. Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.

You roll back to me.

War is not won by victory.

It's all nonsense. It's only nonsense. I'm not afraid of the rain. I am not afraid of the rain. Oh, oh, God, I wish I wasn't.

You don't have to destroy me. Do you? ...

I was blown up while we were eating cheese.

Man is not made for defeat.

By guts I mean, grace under pressure

There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.

Grace under pressure.

Strong in all the Broken Places

But perhaps he had enough animal strength and detached intelligence that he could make another start.

No Pilar, Agustin said. You are not smart. You are brave. You are loyal. You have decision. You have intuition. Much decision and much heart. But you are not smart.