Courage

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” (Alan Cohen)

When we are insecure, frequently we will stay with what is safe and familiar rather than taking a chance on stepping out and failing.

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” (Helen Keller)

True courage is like a kite – an opposing wind raises it higher.

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.” (Aristotle)

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” (T. Roosevelt)

“Courage is resistance to fear, the mastery of fear - not absence of fear.”  (Mark Twain)

“Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” (Peter Drucker, Management Consultant and Author)

“Courage is being scared to death -- but saddling up anyway.” (John Wayne)

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." (James A. Baldwin)

I am not impressed when hearing about men with “the courage of their convictions.” Nero and Caligula and Attila and Hitler had the courage of their convictions – but not one had the courage to examine his convictions, or to change them, which is the true test of character.

“Courage without conscience is a wild beast.” (Robert G. Ingersoll)

'The moment you resolve to take hold of life with all your might and make the most of yourself at any cost, to sacrifice all lesser ambitions to your one great aim, to cut loose from everything that interferes with that aim, to stand alone, firm in your purpose whatever happens, you set in motion the forces implanted within you for your own development. Live up to your resolve, work at what God meant you to work at for the perfecting of His plan, and you will be invincible. No power on earth can hold you back from success.' (Orison Swett Marden)

“To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose ones self.” (Soren Kierkegaard)

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.” (Susan B. Anthony)

“God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right, even though I may think it is hopeless.” (Chester W. Nimitz)

“Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.” (Bernadette Devlin)

“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)

“My experience has been in a short 77 years... that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.” (Edward Teller)

“Refuse to compromise what you know to be right for anyone or anything.” (Brian Tracy)

“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” (Erma Bombeck)

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.” (Albert Einstein)

“Action is the antidote to despair.” (Joan Baez)

“Live your own life, for you will die your own death.” (Latin proverb)

“New ideas pass through three periods: *It can't be done. *It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing *I knew it was a good idea all along!” (Arthur C. Clarke)

“The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

“If you don't risk anything, you risk even more.” (Erica Jong)

“Do not go where the path may lead, instead go where there is no path and leave a trail.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

“Only dead fish go with the flow.” (Unknown)

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” (Winston Churchill)

“Think ‘impossible’ and dreams get discarded, projects get abandoned, and hope for wellness is torpedoed. But let someone yell the words ‘It's possible,’ and resources we hadn't been aware of come rushing in to assist us in our quest.” (Greg Anderson)

“To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” (Elbert Hubbard)

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.” (Harvey Fierstein)

“Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility, and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” (Amelia Earhart)

“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.” (Dag Hammarskjold)

“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.” (B. C. Forbes)

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

“...a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing...” (Thomas Jefferson)

“The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.” (Alan Ashley-Pitt)

“You must have long range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short range failures.” (Charles Noble)

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” (Thoreau)

“To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.” (Bernadette Devlin)