The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear
Our note: Three qualities, each paired with what it frees you from.
Verified in the full text of The Analects on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3330
Quotes about courage
62 verified quotes from 32 writers, c. 475 BC to 1916.
Quotes 1 to 21 of 62, page 1 of 3.
Courage in these pages is rarely about battle. It is Emerson’s “trust thyself”, Thoreau refusing to pay a tax he thought unjust and spending a night in jail for it, Amy March learning to sail her own ship, and Twain’s plain definition: resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Shakespeare supplies the famous lines on cowards and tides, and Marcus Aurelius the image of a headland that stands firm while the waves break against it. Every quote below was found word for word in the full text of the edition we link, and the note under each one says where it sits in the book.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
Confucius, The Analects, c. 475 BCTranslated by James Legge (1861) …be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
Socrates, in Apology by Plato, c. 399 BCTranslated by Benjamin Jowett (1871) Our note: Socrates to the jurors who have just voted to condemn him.
Verified in the full text of Apology on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1656
The difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death
Socrates, in Apology by Plato, c. 399 BCTranslated by Benjamin Jowett (1871) Our note: Socrates on why doing wrong is the thing to fear.
Verified in the full text of Apology on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1656
I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live
Socrates, in Apology by Plato, c. 399 BCTranslated by Benjamin Jowett (1871) Our note: Socrates refuses to plead in the way the court expects.
Verified in the full text of Apology on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1656
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, c. AD 180Translated by George Long (1862) Our note: Book IV, on staying steady when things go wrong.
Verified in the full text of Meditations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #15877 · Collected in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, c. AD 180Translated by George Long (1862) Our note: Book VII, on not worrying about the future.
Verified in the full text of Meditations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #15877 · Collected in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother
King Henry V, in Henry V by William Shakespeare, 1600 Our note: From the king's speech to his outnumbered army before Agincourt.
Verified in the full text of Henry V on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: The Golden Age, Joachim Wtewael, 1605
It is as natural to die, as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful, as the other.
Francis Bacon, Of Death, 1612 Our note: Bacon's calm start to an essay on the fear of dying.
Verified in the full text of Of Death on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #575 · Collected in Essays
Painted the same decade: The Denial of Saint Peter, Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), 1610
Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.
Julius Caesar, in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, 1623 Our note: Caesar dismisses his wife's fears on the morning of the Ides of March.
Verified in the full text of Julius Caesar on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Musician and His Daughter, Thomas de Keyser, 1629
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; …
Brutus, in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, 1623 Our note: Brutus argues for acting while the moment is right.
Verified in the full text of Julius Caesar on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo, Anthony van Dyck, 1624
Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt.
Lucio, in Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare, 1623 Our note: Lucio urges Isabella to go and plead for her brother's life.
Verified in the full text of Measure for Measure on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo, Anthony van Dyck, 1624
…be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
Malvolio, in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, 1623 Our note: Malvolio reads these words in a forged letter meant to fool him.
Verified in the full text of Twelfth Night on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Cardinal's Procession, Ottavio Leoni (Il Padovano), 1621
Thus, fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself
Robinson Crusoe, in Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 1719 Our note: Crusoe after the fright of finding a footprint in the sand.
Verified in the full text of Robinson Crusoe on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #521
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776 Our note: From the first Crisis pamphlet, written in December 1776 when the American cause looked close to lost.
Verified in the full text of The American Crisis on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3741
Painted the same decade: The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda), Luis Meléndez, ca. 1772
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.
Elizabeth Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 1813 Our note: Elizabeth teases Mr. Darcy while he listens to her play the piano.
Verified in the full text of Pride and Prejudice on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1342
Painted the same decade: Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct, Théodore Géricault, 1818
Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.
The creature, in Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1818 Our note: The creature to Victor, who has refused his request.
Verified in the full text of Frankenstein on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #84
Painted the same decade: General Étienne-Maurice Gérard (1773–1852), Jacques Louis David, 1816
Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it
The creature, in Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1818 Our note: The creature speaking to Victor Frankenstein on the glacier.
Verified in the full text of Frankenstein on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #84
Painted the same decade: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Talleyrand, Pierre Paul Prud'hon, 1817
What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
Robert Walton, in Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1818 Our note: Captain Walton, in a letter to his sister, on why he presses on toward the Pole.
Verified in the full text of Frankenstein on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #84
Painted the same decade: Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct, Théodore Géricault, 1818
There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams, and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
Washington Irving, The Wife, 1819 Our note: The narrator of the same essay, on the strength shown in hard times.
Verified in the full text of The Wife on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2048 · Collected in The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon
Painted the same decade: The Public Viewing David's "Coronation" at the Louvre, Louis Léopold Boilly, 1810
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. The way of life is wonderful; it is by abandonment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Circles, 1841 Our note: The closing lines of the essay "Circles."
Verified in the full text of Circles on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
Self-trust is the essence of heroism. It is the state of the soul at war, and its ultimate objects are the last defiance of falsehood and wrong, …
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Heroism, 1841 Our note: From the essay "Heroism."
Verified in the full text of Heroism on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846