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.