Quotes about courage that that can inspire your decision making

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), American Clergyman and Civil Rights Activist

"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 that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." - Robert F. Kennedy (1925 - 1968), American Politician and Civil Rights Activist

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." - Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), British Politician

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction." - Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (1911 - 1977) British Economic Thinker and Statistician

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." - Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), 16th President of the United States

"Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), American Poet and Essayist

"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out." - James Bryant Conant (1893 - 1978) American Chemist and President of Harvard University

"Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name." - Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish Novelist, Poet, and Essayist

"The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom, Courage." - Thucydides (460 BC - 395 BC), Greek Historian

"Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply because it is right." - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), American Clergyman and Activist

"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared." - Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (1890 - 1973), American Fighter Ace in World War I

"It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it." - Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823 - 1886), American Presbyterian Leader and Principal of Princeton Seminary

"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson (1767 - 1845), Seventh President of the United States

Quotes about courage and virtue

"Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other." - Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), English Author, Poet, Literary Critic, and Writer

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963), British Novelist, Essayist, Lay Theologian, and Christian Apologist

"It is curious --- curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare." - Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), American Novelist and Journalist

Quotes about courage and life

"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC - AD 65), Roman Philosopher and Statesman

"The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy." - John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), 35th President of the United States

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anais Nin (1903 - 1977) French Author

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." - Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987), American Writer and Lecturer

Quotes about courage and overcoming fear

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear." - Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), American Novelist and Journalist

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon (1933 - 1996), American Writer

"Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back." - Publilius Syrus (1st Century BC), Latin Writer and Actor

"Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death." - Omar Bradley (1893 - 1981) U.S. Army General during World War II

Quotes about courage and bravery

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), American Philosopher and Poet

"The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly." - Corra Mae Harris (1869 - 1935), American Writer

"Bravery never goes out of fashion." - William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863), English Novelist

"True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world." - François de la Rochefoucauld (1613 - 1680), French Author

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it." - Thucydides (460 BC - 395 BC), Greek Historian

Quotes about courage - Heroism

" It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle." - H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. (1934 - ), Retired United States Army General

"I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom." - Bob Dylan (1941 - ), American Singer-Songwriter, Musician, and Poet

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." - Arthur Ashe (1943 - 1993), American Professional Tennis Player

"Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself - for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held." - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828 - 1914), American College Professor (For his bravery at Gettysburg, he was awarded the Medal of Honor)

"Without heroes, we are all plain people, and don't know how far we can go." - Bernard Malamud (1914 - 1986), American Author

"Self-trust is the essence of heroism." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), American Philosopher and Poet

"That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end." - Lise Hand

Quotes about Courage and Valor

"Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor - that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory." - Walter Lord (1917 - 2002), American Author

"When valor preys on reason, it eats the sword it fights with." - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), English Poet and Playwright

"Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul." - Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592, French Writer

"Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy." - Plutarch (46 - 120), Greek Biographer and Essayist

"In valor there is hope." - Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 - 117), Senator and Historian of the Roman Empire

"Valor is a gift. Those having it never know for sure whether they have it till the test comes. And those having it in one test never know for sure if they will have it when the next test comes." - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821), Military and Political Leader of France