Quotes About Courage

Leaders are not always the first to see the need for change, but they are the first to act. And once they move away from the pack, they are positioned to lead.

You can't lead without taking risk. You won't take risk without courage. Courage is essential to leadership.

Wherever there is fear, there is opportunity. Wherever there is great fear, there is great opportunity.

Leaders understand the unique roles of confidence and caution. Courage requires both. David's caution did not keep him from the battle, but neither did he allow his confidence to blind him to the need to select his stones with care.

As you evaluate your response to the risks involved in leadership, are you careful or fearful? Every next generation leader must wrestle this question to the ground. What you don't know can hurt you. As a leader, what you don't know can paralyze you. Are you consumed by thoughts such as these: What if it doesn't work? What if I'm wrong? What will others think of me?

This goes right to the heart of leadership. Leaders instill courage in the hearts of those who follow. This rarely happens through words alone. It generally requires action. It goes back to what we said earlier: Somebody has to go first. By going first, the leader furnishes confidence to those who follow. In this way, leaders give permission.

Courage in a strategic moment can change the playing field dramatically.

God had called and equipped David to lead. But it took an act of courage for that call to be recognized by the public.

As a next generation leader you already possess the talent and intuition necessary to lead. But chances are it is your courage that will establish you as a leader in the minds of others. To put it in perspective, try to identify a leader worth following who didn't pop up on the public radar screen as a result of a decision or action that required courage.

As you develop your list, a little voice inside you will whisper, "It will take more than courage to pursue these ideas; it will take capital." At that point you may be tempted to put down your pen and retreat to the safety and comfort of how things have always been done. But before you retreat to your tent, let me remind you of two things: Capital follows courage, and what always precedes how.

The courage to dream always precedes the capital needed to finance the dream.

Beginning empty-handed and alone frightens the best of men. It also speaks volumes of just how confident they are that God is with them.

Doing it anyway" is really the only way to ensure that fear doesn't rob you of an opportunity. "Doing it anyway" is the essence of courage. Courage is the willingness to move in a direction in spite of the emotions and thoughts that bid you to do otherwise.

Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage assumes fear. If we had waited for our fear to subside before we took that first plunge off of the high-dive, we would all still be standing there waiting. We just jumped anyway. Courage is the willingness to strap on your fear and move ahead.

An unwillingness to accept risk has swamped more leaders than anything I can think of.

Seasoned leaders rarely regret having taken risks. Even the risks that didn't pay off directly are viewed as a necessary part of the journey. A leader's regrets generally revolve around missed opportunities, not risks taken. Many of those missed opportunities would not have been missed had they been willing to push through their fear and embrace what could be. Fear, not a lack of good ideas, is usually what keeps a man or woman standing on the sidelines.

often, stepping outside your comfort zone is not careless irresponsibility, but a necessary act of obedience.

Past boldness is no assurance of future boldness. Boldness demands continual reliance on God's spirit.

I'm not afraid to die; I just don't want to be there when it happens

We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.

The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.

Hay que ser muy valiente para vivir con miedo. Contra lo que se cree comúnmente, no es siempre el miedo asunto de cobardes. Para vivir muerto de miedo, hace falta, en efecto, muchísimo valor.

I like masculine aesthetics. But I also write, make art, have written poetry, and like feminine aesthetics as well. I am probably seen as too masculine by some and as too feminine by others, depending on how stereotypical they are. But I regard myself as a man in the classical mold — someone who develops the intellect, the physical body, and the spirit; creativity, courage, and compassion . . .

This lack of imagination gives his heroism to the hero.