Quotes About Courage

Whenever I am asked who I admire most among the leaders I have met, I have no hesitation in naming Nelson Mandela.

My little joke that I make whenever I talk about my show is that the way I sold the show to Netflix is 'I'm exactly like Anthony Bourdain, if he was afraid of everything.'

Whenever the occasion arose, he rose to the occasion.

I've been in the shallow end of a pool, just kind of walking around, but this was my first time really swimming - and I was horrified! I actually lost it whenever I saw the edge of the pool. But I took baby steps and rewarded myself every step of the way.

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.

A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

You got to be rigorous in your appraisal system. The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand.

The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.

It's not a lighthearted decision to change your language, your country, your citizenship, and come to a world where you don't know anybody, to leave a place where you've had opportunities to build friendships from childhood. That's quite a big decision to make.

I'm interested in that thing that happens where there's a breaking point for some people and not for others. You go through such hardship, things that are almost impossibly difficult, and there's no sign that it's going to get any better, and that's the point when people quit. But some don't.

When I was 12, I read about Iqbal Masih, a child slave who escaped the carpet factory where he'd been chained to a loom since the age of four. Iqbal led an anti-child labor crusade that made global headlines, including the one that first caught my attention.

In this modern world, where we have filters to make us look as nice as possible, it's good to take off the filter and go, 'I could look stupid here.' You'll learn something and be better for it.

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that's where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

The best marriages are the ones where we can go out in the world and really put ourselves out there. A lot of times we'll fail, and sometimes we'll pull it off. But good marriages are when you can go home and know that your vulnerability will be honored as courage, and that you'll find support.

The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand.

Take those chances and you can achieve greatness, whereas if you go conservative, you'll never know. I truly believe what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Even if you fail, learning and moving on is sometimes the best thing.

The Jews have never been ashamed of being Jews, whereas homosexuals have been stupid enough to be ashamed of their homosexuality.

Freedom and confidence are two different things, in my book. Confidence is overrated - it can be faked, whereas freedom is fearlessness.

When I was in graduate school, I became very interested in why some kids took on challenges and were able to bounce back from setbacks whereas others shy away from difficulty and really crumble when they hit failures. I became fascinated with people who had that kind of courage to take on challenges.

A lot of people don't start something because of fear because they're scared of a negative outcome. Whereas I believe if you focus on negativity, you'll make nothing of your life.

Singing is the rawest thing. Having been naked in films or naked in photo shoots, it's nothing compared to singing. It's absolute nakedness. You are stripped bare! It's very strange. Acting seems much easier, in fact, because you are putting on a costume - whereas here, you are taking everything off.