We are often tempted to think that a courageous person is a fearless one. Someone who is able to face danger all the time, who is always prepared for it and even laughs in its face. Someone who will not only protect themselves, but others around them too.
Sure, such an individual is definitely brave and deserves all the praise and appreciation. But no man is fearless. Courage means taking action in spite of being afraid. Also, bravery is not a synonym for (super)hero, it’s just one of their many virtues.
The truth is, we are all brave in dealing with our daily struggles. We just don't always realize it. Whether you’re standing up for yourself, leave a bad relationship or start fresh in a new field -- these are all courageous acts.
Sometimes your courage won’t be loud and you will probably not get an actual medal for it. However, it will do so much more for you as a person -- it will help you build confidence and inner strength.
Here are 30 courage quotes that prove
you’re braver than you thought you were:
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
NELSON MANDELA (more Nelson Mandela quotes)
It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE (more Napoleon Bonaparte quotes)
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
MARY ANNE RADMACHER
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.
JOHN WAYNE
A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.
JOHN A. SHEDD
Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.
SHANNON L. ALDER
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.
VICTOR HUGO
Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.
BRYCE COURTENAY
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
ANAIS NIN (more Anais Nin quotes)
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
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.
C.S. LEWIS
You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you'll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
J.K. ROWLING (more J. K. Rowling quotes)
Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (more Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes)
You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Keep your fears to yourself but share your courage with others.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
E.E. CUMMINGS
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
MARIE CURIE
The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
R. G. INGERSOLL
Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.
SARAH DESSEN
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
WINSTON CHURCHILL (more Winston Churchill quotes)
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.
JANE AUSTEN
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
MARK TWAIN
You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.
ROY T. BENNETT
Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.
NORA EPHRON (more Nora Ephron quotes)
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.
MAYA ANGELOU
Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.
AUGUST WILSON
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
DALE CARNEGIE (more Dale Carnegie quotes)
