Courage Quotes
“Let’s have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
-Abraham Lincoln
“The greatest test of courage is to bear defeat without losing heart.”
-Robert G. Ingersoll
“Courage is being scared to death…and saddling up anyway.”
-John Wayne
“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”
-Soren Kierkegaard
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
-Plato
“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out and meet it.”
-Pericles
“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”
-Sir Winston Churchill
“Don’t be afraid to do something just because it’s impossible.”
-Kobi Yamata
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
—Anaïs Nin
All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront them.
-William F. Halsey (1882-1959)
“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.”
– Amelia Earhart
“To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.”
-Lao-Tzu
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”
-Ambrose Redmoon
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.”
-Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
“Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you’re scared to death.”
-Earl Wilson (1907-1987)
“The scars you acquire by exercising courage will never make you feel inferior.”
-D.A Battista
“Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared.”
-Eddie Rickenbacker
“Have the courage to face a difficulty lest it kick you harder than you bargain for.”
-Leszczynski Stanislaus (1677-1766)
“There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
—Amanda Gorman
“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”
—Paulo Coelho
“Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you. ”
—Bethany Hamilton
“The best times you will ever have in life are when you’re brave enough to take that step beyond your fears.”
— Chris Fisher
“With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.”
—Keshavan Nair
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
– James Baldwin
“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
—Maya Angelou
“A bold man is better in all things.”
-Homer’s Odyssey
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear ~ not the absence of fear.”
-Mark Twain
“To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.”
-W. Somerset Maugham
“Courage conquers all things.”
-Ovid
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
-Marianne Williamson
“The great virtue in life is real courage that knows how to face facts and live beyond them.”
-D. H. Lawrence
“If you’re the kind of person who is scared and courageous at the same time, you might end up doing big things.”
-David Carr
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
-Anaïs Nin
“It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.”
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001)
“We are made strong by the difficulties we face, not by those we evade.”
-Unknown
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
-Marcus Annaeus Seneca (BC3-65AD)
“Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.”
– Clare Boothe Luce
“It takes courage to live–courage and strength and hope and humor. And courage and strength and hope and humor have to be bought and paid for with pain and work and prayers and tears.”
-Jerome P. Fleisham
“Imposing limitations on yourself is cowardly because it protects you from having to try, and perhaps failing.”
-Vladimir Zworykin
“You can choose courage, or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both.”
—Brené Brown
“Only when we’re brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
—Brené Brown
“Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you have only had wonderful things happen to you.”
-Mary Tyler Moore
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
-Walt Disney (1901-1966)
“Success is never final, and failure is never fatal; is it courage that counts.”
-Sir Winston Churchill
“It is an error to suppose that courage means courage in everything. Most people are brave only in the dangers to which they accustom themselves, either in imagination or practice.”
-Bulwer
“When your ambition is greater than your fear, your life will get bigger than your dream.”
—Farshad Asl
“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.”
– Maya Angelou
“Courage is contagious. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better and the world a little braver.”
—Brené Brown
“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
“Bravery is the audacity to be unhindered by failures, and to walk with freedom, strength, and hope, in the face of things unknown.”
—Morgan Harper Nichols
“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”
-Pericles
“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”
-George S. Patton
“Deliberate with caution, but act with decision. Yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.”
-Charles Caleb Colton
“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
-Edwin Land
“It takes courage to create a meaningful life of integrity. It also requires good company. And practice.”
-Shelly Francis
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
-Sir Winston Churchill
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
-Joseph Campbell
“He who is brave is free.”
– Seneca
“Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.”
– Mary Tyler Moore
“Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”
– Maya Angelou
Dare to begin! He who postpones living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.
-Horace (BC65-8)
“He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses courage loses all.
-Cervantes
“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
“When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
“Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience.”
-J.F. Clarke
“Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.”
-Leo Rosten
“We learn courageous action by going forward whenever fear urges us back.”
-David Seabury
“A great deal of talent is lost in the world for want of courage.”
-Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
“In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant ‘To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.’”
—Brené Brown
“Many of your fears are tissue-paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us through them.”
-Brendan Francis
“Don’t be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That’s where the joy and the adventure lie.”
—Herbie Hancock
“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the
worst are our own fears.”
-Rudyard Kipling
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
― Robert F. Kennedy
“You’ve got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down.”
-Ray Bradbury
“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”
—Mary Tyler Moore
How can you use Quotes?
- Start a discussion: Quotes can start a discussion about a character trait at the beginning of a meeting or the dinner table. You can ask questions about what it means, how they have seen the trait demonstrated in their own lives, or how they can develop it themselves.
- Provide a model: Quotes can provide a model of good character. When you read a quote from a famous person or historical figure, you show that people they admire also value the same character traits.
- Use quotes as writing/journal prompts: Ask them to write a short essay about a quote to help them think more deeply about its implications for their lives.
- Post quotes: You can post quotes where they will be seen/heard often – classroom, breakroom, lobby, dining room, email signatures, video bulletin boards, morning announcements, social media, etc.
- Read quotes aloud: You can read quotes aloud to your children during mealtimes, bedtime, or any other time you spend together.
- Make it fun: You can make it even more fun by incorporating games, activities, or crafts. Let children decorate signs with the quotes to hang in the classroom or a bedroom door. Record children saying it and post it on social media.