Yahoo Lifestyle 120 Courage Quotes To Motivate and Inspire You
We all lack a little courage from time to time, and that's okay! What's not ideal is when you get stuck in the land of stagnant timidity, unsure of how to move on or where to even start. Thankfully, there are plenty of people who have been in your shoes and have made it out to the other side of uncertainty, and they've provided plenty of courage quotes to inspire you.
From the wise minds of Maya Angelou, William Faulkner, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain and plenty of others, come a wide variety of quotes to motivate you to take that next step or make that difficult decision. Their words plead with you to find your bold side, to cultivate your own bravery and make your own way.
When feeling unmotivated, down on your luck or like you have no inspiration, there's nothing better than receiving the perfect pep talk to get you going. And even though we all have our own support systems, sometimes we just need to sit ourselves down and give ourselves that pep talk, no matter how scary that may seem. Regardless of how you're currently feeling, these 120 quotes about courage will surely help you to feel more brave, more inspired and more prepared to take on your next challenge.
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120 Best Courage Quotes
1. “Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” — John F. Kennedy
2. “The secret to happiness is freedom… and the secret to freedom is courage.” — Thucydides
3. "Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it." — Bryce Courtenay
4. "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
5. "Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior." — Carl von Clausewitz
6. “Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.” — Emma Donoghue
7. "Life is not about living the safer option. Life is about living a life worth living." — Robert Thier
8. “And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.” — Paulo Coelho
9. "Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time." — Maya Angelou
10. "He who is brave is free." — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
11. "Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love." — Morihei Ueshiba
12. "People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest." — Hermann Hesse
13. "We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community." — Haile Selassie
14. "The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow." — Jim Hightower
15. "The best protection any woman can have... is courage." — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
16. “Bravery never goes out of fashion.” — William Makepeace Thackeray
17. "The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud." — Coco Chanel
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Famous Quotes About Courage
18. "Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently." — Maya Angelou
19. "Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. He is also a fool." — Robert A. Heinlein
20. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” — Muhammad Ali
21. “The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” — Oprah Winfrey
22. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” — William Faulkner
23. “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” — Brené Brown
24. “I’m not funny. What I am is brave.” — Lucille Ball
25. "You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor." — Aristotle
26. "One man with courage is a majority." — Thomas Jefferson
27. "Courage to me is doing something daring, no matter how afraid, insecure, intimidated, alone, unworthy, incapable, ridiculed or whatever other paralyzing emotion you might feel." — Richelle E. Goodrich
28. "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
29. "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." — Mark Twain
30. "He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy." — Socrates
31. “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” — Amelia Earhart
32. "We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear." — Martin Luther King Jr. "We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear." — Martin Luther King Jr.
33. "Those who lack the courage wll always find a philosophy to justify it." — Albert Camus
34. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E.E. Cummings
35. “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
Quotes About Strength and Courage
36. "Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear." — Jim Butcher
37. “A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.” — Veronica Roth
38. "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
39. "Courage is fear holding on a minute longer." — George S. Patton
40. "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened." — Billy Graham
41. "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
42. "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
43. "The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror!" — Joyce Meyer
44. “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” — Erma Bombeck
45. "Fate loves the fearless." — James Russell Lowell
46. "Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." — Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
47. "Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it's what you believe, and the heck with everybody." — Justin Cronin
48. “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent van Gogh
49. "Courage is taking action….no matter what. So you're afraid? Be afraid. Be scared silly to the point you're trembling and nauseous, but do it anyway!"— Richelle E. Goodrich
50. "Because no matter what they say, you always have a choice. You just don't always have the guts to make it." — Ray N. Kuili
51. "Courage is knowing what not to fear." — Plato
52. "Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at you to fight or flee—and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do." — Jim Butcher
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Quotes About Courage and Bravery
53. "We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are." — Madeleine L'Engle
54. "No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens." — Veronica Roth, Insurgent
55. “Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.” — Franklin P. Jones
56. “If you want to change things, it requires bravery.” — Naftali Bennett
57. "It's your life; you don't need someone's permission to live the life you want. Be brave to live from your heart." — Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
58. "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, Pride and Prejudice
59. "Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared." — Eddie Rickenbacker
60. "There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right." — Ronald Reagan
61. "Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence." — Pope John Paul II
62. "We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends." — Mary McLeod Bethune
63. "Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke." — Benjamin Disraeli
64. "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
65. "Don't Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life." — Don Miguel Ruiz
66. "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. God is awake." — Victor Hugo
67. "The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart." — Robert Green Ingersoll
68. "How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them." — Benjamin Franklin
69. "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
70. "Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them." — Rabindranath Tagore
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Inspirational Courage Quotes
71. "Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." — Eric Fromm
72. "Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall." — Ray Bradbury
73. "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
74. "He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch." — Jean-Luc Godard
75. "Never be discouraged. If I were sunk in the lowest pits of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out on top." — Joseph Smith, Jr.
76. "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'" — Eleanor Roosevelt
77. "I tend to think you're fearless when you recognize why you should be scared of things, but do them anyway." — Christian Bale
78. "Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity." — W. Clement Stone
79. "Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount." — Clare Boothe Luce
80. "My message, especially to young people, is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people." — A. P. J. Abdul kalam
81. "I know of no higher fortitude than stubbornness in the face of overwhelming odds." — Louis Nizer
82. "The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next." — Mignon McLaughlin
83. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” — Stephen King
84. "A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort." — Sydney Smith
85. "To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage." — Georgia O'Keeffe
86. "Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out into the ocean." — Christopher Reeve
87. “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” — Nora Ephron
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Short Quotes About Courage
88. “Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.” — Arthur Koestler
89. "Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness." — Brené Brown
90. "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." — John Wayne
91. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill
92. "We don't develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity." — Barbara De Angelis
93. "Courage isn't having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don't have strength." — Napoleon Bonaparte
94. "A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live." — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
95. “Courage is grace under pressure.” — Ernest Hemingway
96. “Creativity takes courage.” — Henri Matisse
97. “From caring comes courage.” — Lao Tzu
98. “Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it by use.” — Ruth Gordon
99. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” — Winston Churchill
100. "It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit." — J.R.R. Tolkien
101. "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
102. “Courage is found in unlikely places.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
103. "To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength." — Criss Jami
104. “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
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'Be Courageous' Quotes
105. “If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” — John Irving
106. "To see the right and not do it is cowardice." — Confucius
107. "If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life." — Marcus Garvey
108. "Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye." — Helen Keller
109. "Everyone has talent. What's rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads." — Erica Jong
110. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." — Anais Nin
111. "Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair." — Rollo May
112. "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." — E. F. Schumacher
113. "If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed." — David Viscott
114. "Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death." — Omar N. Bradley
115. "To have courage for whatever comes in life - everything lies in that." — Saint Teresa of Avila
116. "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." — T. S. Eliot
117. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." — Steve Jobs
118. "Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and perceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and last some crisis shows what we have become. " — Brooke Foss Westcott
119. "True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is." — Norman Schwarzkopf
120. "Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself." — Charlie Chaplin
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