Whereas, Sir, you know courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.
Quotations about:
courage
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Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. God Himself is not secure, having given man dominion over His works! Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. Faith alone defends. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
Let Us Have Faith, “Faith Fears Not” (1940)
(Source)
Reprinted in her compilation book, The Open Door (1957). This quotation is often given in excerpted form, leaving out certain sentences, or even rearranging some of the sentences and sometimes making it seem that the two sources are actually different.
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
One time I figured out this: if you aren’t brave, it doesn’t matter what other virtues you have, because you aren’t going to act them out. What good does it do to be able to see truth if you’re too chickenshit to act on the basis of what you see? I finally reduced all human virtues to one: bravery.
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
Diary (1941-06)
(Source)
In her Diaries [ed. Stuhlmann (1969)].
Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 58, epigraph (1897)
See here for more discussion about this (and related) quotations.
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
[Sin valor es estéril la sabiduría.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 4 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:Knowledge is barren, if Valour do'nt accompany it.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]Knowledge without courage is sterile.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]Without courage, the mind is dead.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]
Many would be Cowards if they had Courage enough.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 3366 (1732)
(Source)
A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in Edward Parsons Day, Day's Collacon: an Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations, "Danger" (1884), without citation.
If there is one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire better than another, it is a brave man — it is the man who dares to look the devil in the face and tell him he is a devil.
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in The Phrenological Journal (Dec 1881).
I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed (1963))
(Source)
Recounted about Johnson, when he (among other dignitaries) rejected advice from the Secret Service not to march publicly in John F. Kennedy's funeral procession (1963-11-25), in the face of various warnings of further violence or assassination attempts.
According to William Manchester in his extensive The Death of a President, Book 2, ch. 10 (1967), Johnson was actually speaking to his military aide, Col. William Jackson, and said,You damned bastards are trying to take over. If I listen to you, I'll be led to stupid, indecent decisions. I'm going to walk.
This reaction may have been in part due to a previous episode in the book; after the leaving Parkland Hospital in Dallas to head for a flight to the White House, Johnson had been unceremoniously stuffed into one car by his lead Secret Service agent, forced to crouch below the level of the window, and his wife put in the following car as a decoy for other potential assassins.
Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005) Austrian-American business consultant
(Attributed)
Broadly attributed to Drucker, but no actual writing or citeable speech can be found.
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong (b. 1942) American writer, poet
“The Artist as Housewife,” The First Ms. Reader, ed. Francine Kragbrun (1972)
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.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Tragedy of Pudd’n’head Wilson, ch. 12, epigraph (1894)
Ask a question and you’re a fool for three minutes; do not ask a question and you’re a fool for the rest of your life.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Keep close behind me. Let them say their say.
Stand straight, a mighty tower unwavering,
its height unshaken by such breaths of wind.[Vien dietro a me, e lascia dir le genti:
sta come torre ferma, che non crolla
già mai la cima per soffiar di venti.]Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 2 “Purgatorio,” Canto 5, l. 13ff (5.13-15) [Virgil] (1314) [tr. Kirkpatrick (2007)]
(Source)
Virgil scolding Dante for slowing down when other spirits are pointing and murmuring about him having a shadow, unlike them.
(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:Can murmurs move you? Let them whisper on,
And bid your Reason firmly keep its throne,
and o'er the fortress of the mind preside.
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 2]Come after me, and to their babblings leave
The crowd. Be as a tower, that, firmly set,
Shakes not its top for any blast that blows!
[tr. Cary (1814)]Come thou behind me, let the people talk;
Stand like a steadfast tower, whose lofty crest
Ne'er quaked obedient to the rocking blast.
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]Come after me, and let the people talk;
Stand like a steadfast tower, that never wags
Its top for all the blowing of the winds;
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]Come behind me, and let the folk talk; stand like a firm tower which never shakes its top for blast of winds.
[tr. Butler (1885)]Follow thou me, and let the people talk:
Stand like a solid tower, that doth not bow
Its crest at any time, though wild winds stalk.
[tr. Minchin (1885)]Come after me, and let the people talk. Stand as a tower firm, that never wags its top for blowing of the winds.
[tr. Norton (1892)]Follow me and let the people talk; stand thou as a firm tower which never shakes its summit for blast of winds.
[tr. Okey (1901)]Come after me and let the people talk. Stand like a firm tower that never shakes its top for blast of wind.
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]Follow behind me and let them talk their fill:
Stand like a tower whose summit never shakes
For the wind's blowing, and stays immovable.
[tr. Binyon (1943)]Follow thou me, and let the people chatter;
Stand as a tower stands firm in time of trouble,
Nor bends its head, though winds may bawl and batter.
[tr. Sayers (1955)]Follow my steps, though all such whisper of you:
be as a tower of stone, its lofty crown
unswayed by anything the winds may do.
[tr. Ciardi (1961)]Follow me and let the people talk.
Stand as a firm tower which never
shakes its summit for blast of winds.
[tr. Singleton (1973)]Keep up with me and let the people talk!
Be like a solid tower whose brave height
remains unmoved by all the winds that blow.
[tr. Musa (1981)]Come on behind me, let those people talk:
Stand like a solid tower which does not shake
Its top whatever winds are blowing on it.
[tr. Sisson (1981)]Come, follow me, and let these people talk:
stand like a sturdy tower that does not shake
its summit though the winds may blast.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1982)]Come after me, and let the people talk:
be like a strong tower whose top never falls,
however hard the winds may blow.
[tr. Durling (2003)]Follow me close behind, and let the people talk: stand like a steady tower, that never shakes at the top, in the blasts of wind.
[tr. Kline (2002)]Just follow me and let the people talk.
Why can't you be like a sturdy tower
that does not tremble in the fiercest wind.
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]Just follow me and let the people talk:
Stand steady as a tower, which doesn't shake
Its top whenever the winds decide to blow.
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
Karl Marx paraphrased the first line of this tercet in the conclusion of his Author's Preface to the First Edition of Das Kapital (1867), crediting Dante:Every opinion based on scientific criticism I welcome. As to the prejudices of so-called public opinion, to which I have never made concessions, now as aforetime the maxim of the great Florentine is mine: "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti."
Which reads something like "Follow your own course, and let the people talk." The phrase is given in Italian even in the original German edition.
Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to become so.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1855-11-05) to Isham Reavis
(Source)
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
(Spurious)
Frequently ascribed to him, especially in recent decades, but not found in his works.
More discussion about this quotation:
AUSTRIA: For courage mounteth with occasion.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
King John, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 82 (2.1.82) (1596)
(Source)
PETER: To die will be an awfully big adventure.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 3 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)
This was added to the play in 1905, at the end of Act 3:(The waters are lapping over the rock now, and PETER knows that it will soon be submerged. Pale rays of light mingle with the moving clouds, and from the coral grottoes is to be heard a sound, at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the Never Land, the mermaids calling to the moon to rise. PETER is afraid at last, and a tremor runs through him, like a shudder passing over the lagoon; but on the lagoon one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and he feels just the one.)
PETER (with a drum beating in his breast as if he were a real boy at last): To die will be an awfully big adventure.In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 8 "The Mermaids' Lagoon" (1911), this is rendered:
The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moon.
Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremor ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
Sometimes given as "To die would be an awfully great adventure," "To die will be a great adventure," or "To die would be a great adventure."
It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
(Source)
Inscribed on the RFK gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery as "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice."
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1953)
The greatest test of courage is to bear defeat without losing heart.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois
(Source)
For it is the part of a wise man to resolve beforehand that whatever can happen to a man should be borne calmly if it should befall him. It needs altogether great judgment to provide against such evil happening and no less courage to bear it with fortitude if it should befall.
[Est enim sapientis, quidquid homini accidere possit, id praemeditari ferendum modice esse, si evenerit. Majoris omnino est consilii providere ne quid tale accidat, animi non minoris fortiter ferre si evenerit.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 11, ch. 3 / sec. 7 (11.3/11.7) (43-02 BC) [tr. Ker (1926)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:It is the mark of a wise man ever to consider, reflect, that whatever may happen to him should be borne with patience. It is, however, a mark of greater wisdom to take every precaution against the occurrence of any thing unpleasant, of a reverse of fortune; but it is an indication of a mind in no wise inferior bravely and manfully to submit to any change of fortune, however unpleasant, untoward, unfavorable, unpropitious.
[Source (1869)]For it is the part of a wise man to resolve beforehand that whatever can happen to a brave man is to be endured with patience if it should happen. It is indeed a proof of altogether greater wisdom to act with such foresight as to prevent any such thing from happening; but it is a token of no less courage to bear it bravely if it should befall one.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]
