Here is what I've been thinking about lately:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"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. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them."
"What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us."
"A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before."
"'Tis said that courage is common, but the immense esteem in which it is held proves it to be rare. Animal resistance, the instinct of the male animal when cornered, is no doubt common; but the pure article, courage with eyes, courage with conduct, self-possession at the cannon's mouth, cheerfulness in lonely adherence to the right, is the endowment of elevated characters."
"It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do."
"Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind."
"Fear is an instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea!—incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage."
"It is curious - curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare."
-Mark Twain
"You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity."
-Epicurus
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."
"Without courage all virtues lose their meaning."
-Winston Churchill
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
-C.S. Lewis
"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor."
"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others."
-Aristotle
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
-Lao Tzu
"Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once."
"I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none."
"Courage mounteth with occasion."
-William Shakespeare
"Courage, of all national qualities, is the most precarious; because it is exerted only at intervals, and by a few in every nation; whereas industry, knowledge, civility, may be of constant and universal use, and for several ages, may become habitual to the whole people."
-David Hume
"The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger."
-George Gordon Noel Byron
"Courage is of the heart by derivation,
And great it is. But fear is of the soul."
"Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs
Better than all the stalemate an's and ifs."
-Robert Frost
"Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men … have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a 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 human morality…. In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge 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
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
-Harper Lee
"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."
-John Wayne
"A man of great common sense and good taste - meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage."
-George Bernard Shaw
"Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained."
-John Stuart Mill
"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
"Courage is like love, it must have hope for nourishment."
"It requires more courage to suffer than to die."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
"Courage is grace under pressure."
"Cowardice. . . is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination."
-Ernest Hemingway
“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”
-Albert Einstein
“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.” -Thucydides
“He who is brave is free.”
-Seneca
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
-Voltaire
“Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.”
-Ayn Rand
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
-Benjamin Franklin
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
-Martin Luther King
“Freedom lies in being bold.”
-Robert Frost
“Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
-Soren Kierkegaard
“Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty”
-Aristotle
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
-George Bernard Shaw
“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force”
-Voltaire
“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”
-Albert Einstein
“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.” -Thucydides
“He who is brave is free.”
-Seneca
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
-Voltaire
“Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.”
-Ayn Rand
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
-Benjamin Franklin
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
-Martin Luther King
“Freedom lies in being bold.”
-Robert Frost
“Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
-Soren Kierkegaard
“Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty”
-Aristotle
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
-George Bernard Shaw
“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force”
-Voltaire
“Where liberty is, there is my country”
-Benjamin Franklin
