True Courage Quotes

Always, we think we know what courage means. If I were called upon, we say, I would answer the call. I would not hesitate. Until the moment is upon us, and then we realize that the demands of true courage are very different from what we had envisioned, long ago on that bright morning when we felt brave. ~ Erika Johansen

Despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only sort of fear which generates true courage. ~ Edmund Burke

True courage is knowing not when to take a life, but to save one. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

true courage is what it takes to make yourself do something you're afraid to do. ~ Sonora Carver

True courage comes not just from feeling confident and strong, but from being the honest, authentic expression in yourself. Think about how audacious it is to really believe in yourself. ~ Debbie Ford

True kindness is evidence of true courage. ~ Debasish Mridha

The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

True courage is the willingness to fully experience whatever you are feeling at the moment. You can attempt to run from your emotions, but eventually they will catch up with you. They will chase you, haunt you, until finally you give up the chase. ~ Brandon Bays

Remember: God's grief at the unspeakable things we do to one another is beyond measuring, but so is His mercy. It might seem a terrible thing to say to people who've lost and suffered so much at the hands of hatred and violence. But true courage is not to hate our enemy, any more than to fight and kill him. To love him, to love in the teeth of his hate - that is real bravery. That ought to earn people m-m-medals. ~ Tony Hendra

True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene and free. ~ Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl Of Shaftesbury

True courage is born only when it is accompanied by justice. ~ Mas Oyama

You have plenty of courage, I am sure," answered Oz. "All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty. ~ L. Frank Baum

True courage is to stand against evil, even when we stand alone. ~ Richard C. Edgley

Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause ... True courage and manhood come from the consciousness of the right attitude toward the world, the faith in one's purpose, and the sufficiency of one's own approval as a justification for one's own acts. ~ Clarence Darrow

true courage is not knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one"
~Gandalf ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Samuel Smiles ends his book with the following moving story of the "gentleman" general:

The gentleman is characterized by his sacrifice of self, and preference of others, in the little daily occurrences of life…we may cite the anecdote of the gallant Sir Ralph Abercromby, of whom it is related, that, when mortally wounded in the battle of Aboukir, and, to ease his pain, a soldier's blanket was placed under his head, from which he experienced considerable relief.
He asked what it was.
"It's only a soldier's blanket," was the reply.
"Whose blanket is it?" said he, half lifting himself up.
"Only one of the men's."
"I wish to know the name of the man whose blanket this is."
"It is Duncan Roy's, of the 42nd, Sir Ralph."
"Then see that Duncan Roy gets his blanket this very night."

Even to ease his dying agony the general would not deprive the private soldier of his blanket for one night.
As Samuel wrote: "True courage and gentleness go hand in hand."
It was in this family, belief system, and heritage that Walter, my great-grandfather, grew up and dared to dream. ~ Bear Grylls

I know I am incapable of courage unless I have decided to give my life. Without that choice, there is nothing but flight. But you take such a decision on the spur of the moment and you cannot make it last for weeks and months. The mental effort is too great. Hence the rarity of true courage. We generally accept a kind of lame compromise between the destiny and the man, which reason rejects. ~ Gabriel Chevallier

Courage is being afraid - and going ahead, anyway. ~ Heather Graham

True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher. ~ John Petit-Senn

Creation of effective public opinion depends on the cultivation of true courage, born of truthfulness and nonviolence. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

It is how we perceive ourselves that matters. True courage isn't about being brave. True beauty isn't about being beautiful. True courage is about being real. True beauty is about being happy. ~ R.K. Ryals

There is no bravery in evil, no true courage in behavior that can only result in deep disappointment. ~ Marion D. Hanks

The truth is that Ron is my hero. He's always there for his friends - sometimes belligerently, but there nevertheless. He's also the comic relief in stressful situations; the funny guy with a great one-liner. And no matter how scared he may be, he will put aside his fears to support and protect the people he loves. To me, that represents true courage. ~ Rupert Grint

Cowards and courage make for great conflict. Embodied within the statement above is the idea that imperfect heroes are the most satisfying because true courage is facing what you fear, trying even though the odds of failure are great. Internal ~ Debra Dixon

His life was cheap to him. Perhaps that's why he rode faster than any other, perhaps that was why he had walked into the house of Aquila without the quickening of a heartbeat: because at the heart of his courage was the fact that he really did not care if he died. Such courage is not true courage. True courage is when a man quakes with fear in the face of death, yet still risks his life for something he cares about. Ricardo Bruni did not know this yet, but he was to learn it soon. ~ Marina Fiorato

Only a true weakling is capable of true courage. ~ Gichin Funakoshi

True Courage is when you are afraid of something but go through with it anyway ~ Victor Castelo

Guilt and true courage are incompatible... ~ Matthew Lewis

It is the hardest thing of all, the one thing that will show if you have the one true courage. To know that you have failed, that your best efforts have been defeated, to not be able to stand it, to not be able to go on and yet to go on nonetheless. ~ Silvia Hartmann

You already have inside of you what you need to prevail, you only need to believe that is true. ~ Germany Kent

Let us grant courage and the love of pure adventure their own justification, even if we cannot produce any material support for them. Mankind has developed an ugly habit of only allowing true courage to the killers. Great credits accrue to the one who bests another; little is given to the man who recognises in his comrade on the rope a part of himself, who for long hours of extreme peril faces no opponent to be shot or struck down, but whose battle is solely against his own weakness and insufficiency. Is the man who, at moments when his own life is in the balance, has not only to safeguard it but, at the same time, his friend's- even to the extent of mutual self-sacrifice- to receive less recognition than a boxer n the ring, simply because the nature of what he is doing is not properly understood? In his book about the Dachstein, Kurt Maix writes: "Climbing is th emost royl irrationality out of which Man, in his creative imagination, has been able to fashion the highest personal values." Those personal values, which we gain from our approach to the mountains, are great enough to enrich our life. Is not the irrationality of its very lack of purpose the deepest argument for climbing? But we had better leave philosophical niceties and unsuitable psychoanalisis out of this. ~ Heinrich Harrer

But how cool, how quiet is true courage! ~ Fanny Burney

True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

In true courage there is always an element of choice, of an ethical choice, and of anguish, and also of action and deed. There is always a flame of spirit in it, a vision of some necessity higher than oneself. ~ Brenda Ueland

Be courageous. Be independent. Only remember where the true courage and independence come from. ~ Phillips Brooks

In a world full of quitters, it takes true courage to commit to marriage renewal. If you want a field manual for restoring your relationship, get The Phoenix Marriage: God creates beauty out of ashes. ~ Tony Jeary

TRUE Courage is when you are scared to death and STILL saddle up and ride in! ~ John Wayne

True courage is not the absence of fear; it is refusing to let fear control your actions.

~ from the book "Do Hard Things ~ Alex Brett Harris

So most people go around with grimy machinery, when all it would take is a bit of spit and polish to make them paladins once more, bold knights and true. ~ Catherynne M Valente

Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing not to be afraid depends on what the fearlessness is founded upon. Some how no fear because they have no knowledge of the danger; there is nothing fine in that. Some are too stupid to be afraid; there is nothing fine in that. Some who are not easily frightened would yet turn their backs and run the moment they were frightened; such never had more courage than fear. But the person who will do his or her work in spite of his or her fear is a person of true courage. ~ George MacDonald

I wanted very much to be a person of value and I had to ask myself how this could be possible if there were not something like a soul or like a spirit that is in the life of a person and which could endure any misfortune or disfigurement and yet be no less for it. If one were to be a person of value that value could not be a condition subject to the hazards of fortune. It had to be a quality that could not change. No matter what... I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I'd always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals came easily.
I knew that courage came with less struggle for some than for others but I believed that anyone who desired it could have it. That the desire was the thing itself. The thing itself. I could think of nothing else of which that was true. ~ Cormac McCarthy

Many people today believe that cynicism requires courage. Actually, cynicism is the height of cowardice. It is innocence and open-heartedness that requires the true courage-however often we are hurt as a result of it. ~ Erica Jong

Dreams are reality that has not become true. However, in the hearts of some people, they have already come true. People whose dreams are already achieved in their hearts, and who can see that as they boldly throw themselves into it, have true courage. ~ Ilchi Lee

True courage knows fear. It knows how to fear that which should be feared. Honest people value life passionately, they hang on to it like a precious jewel. And they pick the right time and place to surrender it, to die with dignity. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa

True courage scorns to vent her prowess in a storm of words; and to the valiant action speaks alone. ~ Tobias Smollett

True courage is in knowing that there is nothing to scare you. ~ Debasish Mridha

I recollected that [the rattlesnake's] eye excelled in brightness, that of any other animal, and that she has no eye-lids. She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her, she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a most defenseless animal; and even when those weapons are shown and extended for her defense, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds however small, are decisive and fatal. Conscious of this, she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her. ~ Benjamin Franklin

It takes true courage and real humility to say NO or YES! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

What a smile! I remember it now, and I know that it was the effluence of fine intellect, of true courage; it lit up her marked lineaments, her thin face, her sunken grey eye, like a reflection from the aspect of an angel. Yet at that moment Helen Burns wore on her arm "the untidy badge;" scarcely an hour ago I had heard her condemned by Miss Scatcherd to a dinner of bread and water on the morrow because she had blotted an exercise in copying it out. Such is the imperfect nature of man! such spots are there on the disc of the clearest planet; and eyes like Miss Scatcherd's can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb. CHAPTER ~ Charlotte Bronte

Set a challenge for yourself and challenge yourself to set a challenge for others to challenge themselves. True strength, true wisdom, true tenacity and true courage is best seen when it is in motion! Take action! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Dreaming is risky. While only some dreams can put you at physical risk, all dreams require that you take an emotional risk. By their nature, dreams create a gap between your present reality and the reality you want to have, causing you to question whether you can bridge that gap. This risk alone can be so daunting for people that they prefer to leave their dreams in their childhood or buried away beneath layers of fear, doubt, and resignation. That's why dreaming bigger dreams takes courage; it means risking the possibility that your dreams will not come true. ~ Margie Warrell

True courage is facing life without flinching. I don't mean the times when the right path is hard, but glorious at the end. I'm talking about enduring the boredom, and the messiness, and the inconvenience of doing what is right.' She ~ Robin Hobb

It's easy to point out other people flaws, but it takes TRUE courage and strength take a look in the mirror, admit personal flaws AND strive to do and be better. That's growth! ~ Yvonne Pierre

It is from the bystanders (who are in the vast majority) that we receive the propaganda that life is not worth living, that life is drudgery, that the ambitions of youth must he laid aside for a life which is but a painful wait for death. These are the ones who squeeze what excitement they can from life out of the imaginations and experiences of others through books and movies. These are the insignificant and forgotten men who preach conformity because it is all they know. These are the men who dream at night of what could have been, but who wake at dawn to take their places at the now-familiar rut and to merely exist through another day. For them, the romance of life is long dead and they are forced to go through the years on a treadmill, cursing their existence, yet afraid to die because of the unknown which faces them after death. They lacked the only true courage: the kind which enables men to face the unknown regardless of the consequences. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

This is the feeling that gives a man true courage-the feeling that he has a work to do at all costs; the sense of duty. ~ Charles Kingsley

It is a mistake to think of courage as something you show to others. True courage is only something you show to yourself. ~ Eliot Pattison

True courage is not ostentatious; men who wish to inspire terror seem thereby to confess themselves cowards. Why do they rely on it, but because they know how potent it is with themselves? ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Objectively (i.e., in theory) there is utterly no conflict between morality and politics. But subjectively (in the self-seeking inclinations of men, which, because they are not based on maxims of reason, must not be called the [sphere of] practice [Praxis]) this conflict will always remain, as well it should; for it serves as the whetstone of virtue, whose true courage (according to the principle, "tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito")35 in the present case consists not so much in resolutely standing up to the evils and sacrifices that must be taken on; rather, it consists in detecting, squarely facing, and conquering the deceit of the evil principle in ourselves, which is the more dangerously devious and treacherous because it excuses all our transgressions with an appeal to human nature's frailty. ~ Immanuel Kant

When you feel deep, paralyzing fear and you don't let it stop you, that is true courage. There's never bravery without fear. Just as there's no love without hate. (M'Adoc) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

True meditation can never be done with the mind. Very often we make a mistake when we say that we are meditating in the mind and utilising the mind. Real meditation is done in the psychic being and in the soul. It goes hand in hand with flaming aspiration, the burning flame that wants to climb up to the Highest. ~ Sri Chinmoy

A beautiful person is not defined by a hair style, a pair of shoes, it's not the logos on the T-shirt, the sport's team on a hat, the designer's name on a hand bag, or even how you smell.

Instead, beauty lies in who you are when no one is watching, the person you are when there's nothing to hide behind. No amount of concealer can cover up a cantankerous heart, but all the make-up in the world can't add a single lumen to the brightness of a beautiful soul. ~ Justin Young

It's true that adventures are good for people even when they are very young. Adventures can get in a person's blood even if he doesn't remember having them. ~ Eva Ibbotson

The qualities of an exceptional cook are akin to those of a successful tightrope walker: an abiding passion for the task, courage to go out on a limb and an impeccable sense of balance. ~ Bryan Q. Miller

It is good to be skeptical, to ask "is this really true?," to take nothing at face value. It is not good to blind yourself to what you can see is true, useful, or beautiful because you are afraid to trust. ~ Mark David Chapman

Usually when you have a sequel, the character always stays the same and that's true basically of 'Rocky III,' 'IV' and 'V.' He didn't really change. ~ Irwin Winkler

People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time. ~ Ruste Cohle True Detective

All that is needed is to listen. The love song of the world enters our souls through the language of life. Our touchstone of strength forms the shape of our beloveds. Courage surges into our limbs. We rise. One foot steps in the direction of change. This is the Love that thrusts the world through eternity and carries us forward into the infinity of tomorrow. It sings overhead, scouring the barriers of reality, looking for an opening. ~ Rivera Sun

Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them? ~ Louisa May Alcott

Knighthood. Was he even worthy? Just a little while ago, he'd have answered yes without a doubt, but now, facing the cross and his own desires, he wasn't so sure. Courage, loyalty, obedience, faith. If even a man like Ulric could act against those virtues, then they were not something one possessed, but something to be constantly guarded and reclaimed. ~ Aleksandr Voinov

Writing's much more romantic when its pen and ink and paper. It's... More timeless. and worthwhile. Think about it. There are so many words gushing out into the universe these days. All digitally. All in Comic Sans or Times New Roman. Silly Websites. Stupid news stories digitally uploaded to a 24-hour channel. Where's all this writing going? Who's keeping a note of it all? Who's in charge of deciding what's worthwhile and what isn't? But back then... Back then, if someone wanted to write something they had to buy paper. Buy it! And ink. And a pen. And they couldn't waste too many sheets cos it was expensive. So when people wrote, they wrote because it was worthwhile... not just because they had some half-baked idea and they wanted to pointlessly prove their existence by sharing it on some bloody social networking site. ~ Holly Bourne

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true. ~ J. Robert Oppenheimer

I was sure that, once I let someone penetrate me, my world would change in some indescribable yet fundamental way. I would never be able to hug my parents with the same innocence, and being alone with myself would have a different tenor. How could I ever experience true solitude again when I'd had someone poking around my insides? How permanent virginity feels, and then how inconsequential. ~ Lena Dunham

E-mail is a procrastinator's dream come true. ~ Gayle Trent

She had lost herself somewhere along the frontier between her inventions, her stories, her fantasies and her true self. The boundaries had become effaced, the tracks lost, she had walked into pure chaos, and not a chaos which carried her like the galloping of romantic riders in operas and legends, but which suddenly revealed the stage props: a papier-mâché horse. ~ Anais Nin

Our approach to modern health care focuses so much on removing symptoms, that we've learned to equate immediate relief with healing. But healing is much more than simply feeling better in the moment; it requires true transformation, and transformation is rarely comfortable. ~ Jessica Moore

You are my true and honourable wife;
As dear to me as the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart. ~ William Shakespeare

True development must be in harmony with the needs of people and the rhythms of the natural world. ~ Sulak Sivaraksa

In the face of impermanence and death, it takes courage to love the things of this world and to believe that praising them is our noblest calling. ~ Joanna Macy

We have probably all seen teachers who would pick a student up by the scruff of the neck for saying 'Shit,' but who would walk by without a word when overhearing that same student taunting a classmate, calling him a 'fag.' It is often easier not to intervene - even when there is a clear-cut victim. It's out in the hall. It isn't our business. It isn't our problem.

But our inactions, like our actions, define who we are and what are true values are. ~ Richard H. Eyster

But I did - I did want to write a book, and I knew what the first line would be: "Maybe I shouldn't have given the guy who pumped my stomach my phone number, but he'll never call me anyway. No one will ever call me again." And this was based on a true thing. See, the doctor that pumped my stomach sent me flowers. With a note that read: "I can tell that you are a very warm and sensitive person." All that from the contents of my stomach! I was tempted to marry him so I could tell people how we met. ~ Carrie Fisher

While it is true that without a vision the people perish, it is doubly true that without action the people and their vision perish as well. ~ Johnnetta B. Cole

The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth. ~ Anthony Kennedy

What matters is that life is good. It has a lovely texture, like some rich cloth or fur, or the petals of flowers, and everything else worthwhile. And that's as true for the last man as the first. ~ Fritz Leiber

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

THE WAY I FEEL FOR YOU


What a nice feeling that I feel inside my heart.

I can't understand , what is this?

Is this LOVE or infantuation that I feel for you?

I don't really understand.

When I see you , I really admired you.

Night comes , I always think of you,

I dreamed that you and I in a happy hours.

But? Can it be true?

Like a fairytale , a happy ending story for both of us.

But this just my dreamed that only me would be happy.

Because in my life , I LOVE in my dream world,

With always a happy ending story. ~ Roy C. Jagmoc

That philosopher who orders us to conceal ourselves and to care for no one but ourselves and who wishes us to remain unknown to others, wants us even less to be held in honour and glory by them. He also advised Idomeneus in no wise to govern his actions by reputation or by common opinion, except to avoid such incidental disadvantages as the contempt of men might bring him.10 Those words are infinitely true, in my opinion, and are reasonable. ~ Michel De Montaigne

The multitudinous substitutes for indigenous culture cannot grow. Having no roots, they can only age and decay. Studious, sincere youth retires, defeated. American youth, capable of becoming serious competent artists, under such pressure as this on every side, confused, try not to give up
or "fall in line." This is the nature of about all that can be called American education in the arts and architecture at this time. As for religion true to the teaching of the great redeemer who said "The Kingdom of God is within you"
that religion is yet to come: the concept true not only for the new reality of building but for the faith we call democracy. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Like that timber wolf on the mountain he had a kind of animal courage. He went his own way with unconcern for consequences that sometimes stunned people, and stuns me now to hear about it. He did not often swerve to right or to left. I've discovered that. But this courage didn't arise from any idealistic idea of self-sacrifice, only from the intensity of his pursuit, and there was nothing noble about it. ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves. ~ Carol Lynn Pearson

It doesn't matter how educated, moneyed, or smart you are: when your child's footprints end at the river's edge, when the one you love has gone into the woods with a bleak outlook and a loaded gun, when the chaplain is walking toward you with the bad news in her mouth, then only the cliches are true, and you will repeat them, unashamed. Your life, too, will swing suddenly and cruelly in a new direction with breathtaking speed, and if you are really wise - and it's surprising and wondrous, Brother, how many people have this wisdom in then - you will know enough to look around for love. It will be there, standing right on the hinge, holding out its arms to you, If you are wise, whoever you are, you will let go, fall against the love, and be held. ~ Kate Braestrup