To do what you are afraid to do is to guide your life by fear. How much better not to be afraid to do what you believe in doing!

Jane Addams (1860-1935) American reformer, suffragist, philosopher, author

Editorial, Rockford Seminary Magazine (c. 1880)

Quoted in James Weber Linn, Jane Addams: A Biography (1935).

Reacting to Emerson. See also Schmich.