QUOTES: All About Courage — 64 Great Quotes on the Nature of Courage

1. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others. — Sir Winston Churchill
2. Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.  – Clare Boothe Luce
3. One man with courage makes a majority.  — Andrew Jackson
4. The strongest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.  — Michael de Montaigne
5. Ordinary people even weak people can do extraordinary things through temporary courage generated by a situation but the person of character does not need the situation to generate his courage, it is a part of his being and a standard approach to all life’s challenges.   — Michael S. Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com
6. Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.  — G. K. Chesterton
7. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear— not absence of fear. Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.  — Mark Twain
8. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of the final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy A man does what he must-in spite of personal consequences; in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures-and that is the basis of all morality.  — John Fitzgerald Kennedy
9. Courage doesn’t always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.  — Mary Anne Radmacher
10. Courage is the way integrity expresses itself providing the will to do the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay.  – Michael S. Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com
11. People are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fiber called courage.  — Mignon McLaughlin,
12. Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.  — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
13. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.  — Eleanor Roosevelt
14. The coward dies a thousand deaths, the valiant, only once!  — Shakespeare
15. It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!  — Emiliano Zapata
16. Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.  — Victor Hugo
17. Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing.  — George Eliot
18. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.  — Mark Twain
19. The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.  — Erica Jong
20. Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.  — General George S. Patton
21. Ordinary people even weak people can do extraordinary things through temporary courage generated by a situation but the person of character does not need the situation to generate his courage, it is a part of his being and a standard approach to all life’s challenges.  — Michael S. Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com
22. Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs.  –Ralph Waldo Emerson
23. Failure is only postponed success as long as courage coaches ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.  — Herbert Kaufman
24. It is not the critic who counts … The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is actually marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows great enthusiasm and great devotions, whose life is spent in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and at worst, if failure wins out, it at least wins with greatness, so that this person’s place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.  — Theodore Roosevelt
25. Life Shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.  — Anais Nin
26. The only force that can sustain true and consistent courage is some form of spiritual belief that values like honor, duty, loyalty and integrity above the status, power, money and even security.  — Michael S. Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com
27. Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.  — Sir Winston Churchill
28. The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.  — Robert G. Ingersoll
29. When you get into a tight place and it seems you can’t go on, hold on! For that’s just the place and time, that the tide will turn.  — Harriett Beecher Stowe
30. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.  — Helen Keller
31. To have courage for whatever comes in life-everything lies in that  — Mother Teresa
32. God Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change, The Courage To Change the Things I Can And The Wisdom To Know The Difference  — Serenity Prayer
33. Sometimes the courage we need is to stand up and speak; sometimes it is to sit down and listen.  — Michael Josephson
34. Strength and courage aren’t always measured in medals and victories. They are measured in the struggles they overcome. The strongest people aren’t always the people who win, but the people who don’t give up when they lose.  — Ashley Hodgeson
35. Many of our fears are tissue paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us through them.  –Brendan Francis
36. History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.  — B. C. Forbes
37. Courage is not always enough to assure victory, but its demonstration while confronting challenges and pursing victory brings its own rewards not the least of which is knowledge that fear did not and will not keep you from the battle. Michael Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com
38. Within each of us is a hidden store of energy. Energy we can release to compete in the marathon of life. Within each of us is a hidden store of courage. Courage to give us the strength to face any challenge. Within each of us is a hidden store of determination. Determination to keep us in the race when all seems lost  –Roger Dawson
39. There is within you, waiting to be called, a great source of power called courage.  Call its name and it will give you the strength to overcome fear and uncertainty and the heart to continue with bold confidence despite the pain of disappointment and even tragedy. — Michael S. Josephson www. whatwillmatter.com
40. Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.  — Lao Tso
41. Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom That opens in the snow.  — Alice MacKenzie Swaim
42. With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.  — Keshavan  Nair
43. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or live. Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. Only a person who risks is free  — Leo Buscalia
44. Successful or not, acts of physical courage always bring honor.  It is the smaller forms of valor — standing up for principle at the risk of social disapproval, economic loss or injury to career — that require the greatest moral will power.  Since there is usually little upside to winning and a significant and often lasting downside to losing, moral courage often requires as much character as physical bravery.  — Michael S. Josephson
45. Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.  -– Harper Lee, in  To Kill a Mockingbird
46. Facing it- always facing it-that’s the way to get through.  Face it!  -– Joseph Conrad
47. Courage is contagious.  When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.  — Billy Graham
48. No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.  — Harry Gray
49. You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.  — Eleanor Roosevelt
50. The kind of courage that is strengthened or created by concern about what others will think is really a form of fear.  Fear of disapproval or dishonor becoming stronger than fear of injury or even death.  — Michael S. Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com
51. As for courage and will – we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead.  — Andre Norton
52. Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.  –Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961), A Farewell to Arms, 1929
53. The stories of past courage can teach, offer hope, and provide inspiration, but they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.  — John F. Kennedy (paraphrase)
54. Courage and perseverance make difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.  — John Quincy Adams (paraphrase)
55. Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway.  — John Wayne
56. Courage can’t see around corners, but goes around them anyway.  — Mignon McLaughlin
57. Necessity is not merely the father of invention; it is the father of courage.  – Michael S. Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com
58. The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people — faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but will also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment – faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor, and ultimately recognize right.  — John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
59. For in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, “hold office”; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.  — John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
60. In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience – the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.  — John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
61. A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.  — John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
62. Physical courage to a person of honour is easier and less risky than acts that could subject him to embarrassment or humiliation or a diminished career or reputation.  These things he must live with.  To die for honor is an easier thought to bear.  — Michael S. Josephson
63. There’s some wisdom and no moral deficiency to one who holds courage in reserve and uses it as a last resort.  Before we take the kind of risks that require courage, we ought to exhaust other less risky alternatives.  — Michael S. Josephson
64. Some jobs require a more consistent challenge to moral courage than others.  Politics is one.  In such a setting terrifically good men and women will still be found wanting occasionally.  No one does the right thing all the time.  It would be more generous and fair to consider their batting average than to judge them only by their last worst act.  — Michael S. Josephson www. whatwillmatter.com

Collected and organized by Michael Josephson

See Images of and Words of Courage.