145 Inspiring Quotes About Courage

In the journey of life, there are moments when we are called to act with bravery and tenacity. Courage, that unwavering force within us, propels us forward, helping us overcome obstacles and face challenges with resilience and grace. While it is often said that courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it, finding inspiration to cultivate this vital trait can be transformative. This curated collection of 145 inspiring quotes about courage serves as a beacon, offering words of wisdom and motivation from some of the world’s most insightful minds. Whether you’re seeking encouragement to step into the unknown, draw strength during difficult times, or simply embrace each day with fearless optimism, these quotes will inspire and empower you to lead a courageous life.

1. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” - Andre Gide

2. “With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” - Margaret Mitchell

3. “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” - Ann Landers

4. “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” - George Orwell

5. “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” - Amelia Earhart

6. “When there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph.” - A. Alvarez

7. “it takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeded.” - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

8. “Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn't be done.” - Amelia Earhart

9. “Whatever course you decide upon there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires....courage.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

10. “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.” - Alan Cohen

11. “The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, anew continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to bereleased and channeled toward some great good.” - Brian Tracy

12. “We need a backbone, not a wishbone.” - Joyce Meyer

13. “Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it's actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.” - Christopher Paolini

14. “Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.” - Thucydides

15. “Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice - if not whether, then how, they may endure.” - Lois McMaster Bujold

16. “Ah; but my courage fails me, and my heart is sick within me! —Lord, take pity on the Christian who doubts, on the skeptic who would fain believe, on the galley-slave of life who puts to sea alone, in the darkness of night, beneath a firmament illumined no longer by the consoling beacon-fires of the ancient hope.” - Joris-Karl Huysmans

17. “To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.” - Henri Matisse

18. “I know that life is a doorway to eternity, and yet my heart so often gets lost in petty anxieties. It forgets the great way home that lies before it.” - Sophie Scholl

19. “An end in terror is preferable to terror without end.” - Sophie Scholl

20. “Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds -- justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.” - Anne Rice

21. “Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes."[The Rectorial Address Delivered by James M. Barrie at St. Andrew's University May 3, 1922, to the Red Gowns of St. Andrews, Canada, 1922]” - J.M. Barrie

22. “The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” - Paulo Coelho

23. “I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.” - Anne Frank

24. “You make all kinds of mistakes, but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.” - Winston S. Churchill

25. “Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make love known?” - William Shakespeare

26. “But he'd learned long ago that a life lived without risks pretty much wasn't worth living. Life rewarded courage, even when that first step was taken neck-deep in fear.” - Tamera Alexander

27. “Sometimes, making the wrong choice is better than making no choice. You have the courage to go forward, that is rare. A person who stands at the fork, unable to pick, will never get anywhere.” - Terry Goodkind

28. “Courage is indispensible because in politics not life but the world is at stake.” - Hannah Arendt

29. “People who lack the clarity, courage, or determination to follow their own dreams will often find ways to discourage yours. Live your truth and don't EVER stop!” - Steve Maraboli

30. “Now, this is what the Lord says, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” - Anonymous

31. “Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?''That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him.” - George R.R. Martin

32. “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. "One word of truth outweighs the world.” - Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

33. “One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” - Andre Gide

34. “La couleur du courage, c'est le brun” - Mary Gentle

35. “There is a heady sense of manhood that comes from advancing from apathy to commitment, from timidity to courage, from passivity to aggressiveness. There is an intoxication that comes from standing up to the police at last.” - David T. Dellinger

36. “Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?” - J.M. Coetzee

37. “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” - Plato

38. “You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.” - Khaled Hosseini

39. “Courage is not the absence of fear or despair; it is the capacity to continue on despite them, no matter how great or overwhelming they become.” - Robert Fanney

40. “There are certain mortal moments and minutes that matter. Certain hingepoints in the history of each human. Some seconds are so decisive they shrink the soul, while others are spent, so as to stretch the soul.” - Neal A. Maxwell

41. “The liar was the hottest to defend his veracity, the coward his courage, the ill-bred his gentlemanliness, and the cad his honor” - Margaret Mitchell

42. “How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

43. “Like a fellow running from or toward a gun ain't got time to worry whether the word for what he is doing is courage or cowardice.” - William Faulkner

44. “Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.” - Madeleine L'Engle

45. “I was afraid, sheer afraid, and wondered at myself. You see, I've no more pluck than any man of my inches but I'd been about a good bit. I'd seen adventure and heard other fellows talk it over, and I knew you're pretty sure to get out of everything with a whole skin till that last particular time that you don't - so what's the use of grizzling? ("Golden Baby")” - Alice Brown

46. “That's what courage is. If she weren't scared, she wouldn't need courage in the first place." -Jo” - Nicholas Sparks

47. “For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.” - Eric Roth

48. “Through strength I found loveIn time I found myself in happiness with you” - Alexis Jordan

49. “If I am to be fallen into love, I will. And if as a result I will appear to be stupid, disillusioned, and of poor judgment, I will. And I would be damned if I cared what other people think. For I would rather be thought of as all of these things, than not love. If in loving, I become the naked woman on the horse, I will ride that horse with my head held high. This is my spirit. I am unbreakable.” - C. JoyBell C.

50. “There are two things we should always be 1. raw and 2. ready. When you are raw, you are always ready and when you are ready you usually realize that you are raw. Waiting for perfection is not an answer, one cannot say "I will be ready when I am perfect" because then you will never be ready, rather one must say "I am raw and I am ready just like this right now, how and who I am.” - C. JoyBell C.

51. “In case you never get a second chance: don't be afraid!" "And what if you do get a second chance?" "You take it!” - C. JoyBell C.

52. “She put her tongue out and felt the raw edges of the torn silk. She looped her tongue around them and drew them into her teeth. Just a little bit, she thought, that's all I need to free my eyelids. She pulled the tasteless web between her teeth and ground, pulling her jaw down in a grimace - it felt as it she was eating the very skin off her face. But the silk over her eyelids shifted.” - Stephen M. Irwin

53. “May we muster courage at the crossroads, courage for the conflicts, courage to say, "no," courage to say, "yes," for courage counts. ” - Thomas S. Monson

54. “For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and to provide for it.” - Patrick Henry

55. “My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.” - Maya Angelou

56. “The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” - Pema Chodron

57. “We must be content to grow slowly. Most of us will still barely be at the beginning of our recovery by the time we die. But that is better than killing ourselves pretending to be healthy.” - Simon Tugwell

58. “I had to cease to mourn what could never be and make the most of what was possible. And I would begin doing that by trying to mend the hurts of the past.” - Cameron Dokey

59. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” - Anonymous

60. “Because...” he used to cradle his daughter in his arms every morning and often they would exchange soft nuances “...if you can dream it, if you can see it in your visions at night, if you can feel it in your soul, it’s yours! And it never really belonged to anyone else, in the first place! It was always yours!” Viera returned her scroll to the drawer and closed it, she kissed the compass around her neck and climbed into her bed under the warm quilts, the candle flame crackled and the memories of her father’s arms around her embraced her there in bed and his deep, hoarse voice resounded in her ears; “... and if you chance upon a treasure that is yours and it happens to be in the possession of someone else, it’s not very wrong to take what is yours, to take what you dreamed, what you saw in your visions at night, what you felt visit you in your spirit! Sure, it’s not lawful, but aye aye my little one, listen to me when I tell you that the best things in life are not under the laws of any sort! For which law created love? Which law created courage? The best things, the real things, are the things that are not measured by any man’s laws! Fear is the only thing that any law has ever created! And what kind of pirates would we all be if we were afraid of any of our fears, even a little!” - C. JoyBell C.

61. “The philosophies of men surround us. The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness, and pain. You know what is right and what is wrong, and no disguise, however appealing, can change that. Be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone. Have the moral courage to be a light for others to follow.” - Thomas S. Monson

62. “The only difference between a grown-up's mistake and a child's is the size of the consequence.” - Teresa R. Funke

63. “I am not sure I can.""Become sure," said the cat, his eyes flashing green in the firelight. "Once you leap on a boar's back, you can't sheath your claws.” - Erin Bow

64. “I want to look at you as you kill me.” - Curtis Jobling

65. “Always be bold in everything you do, because boldness has genius, power and magic in it which makes impossibility possible” - Adedayo kingjerry

66. “We were as Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the world.” - Patti Smith

67. “Bravado may stir the crowd, but courage needs no audience.” - T.F. Hodge

68. “Fear is the lack of faith in one's ability to create powerful solutions.” - T.F. Hodge

69. “When you were in a room with Kurtis James, whether it was one or a hundred other people, Kurtis seemed to be the only one there” - Dee Remy

70. “If you build the guts to do something, anything, then you better save enough to face the consequences.” - Criss Jami

71. “Courage isn't absenct of fear, it is the awareness that something else is important” - Stephen R. Covey

72. “As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.” - Winston Churchill

73. “You can't really know what you are made of until you are tested.” - O. R. Melling

74. “To know a species, look at its fears. To know yourself, look at your fears. Fear in itself is not important, but fear stands there and points you in the direction of things that are important. Don't be afraid of your fears, they're not there to scare you; they're there to let you know that something is worth it.” - C. JoyBell C.

75. “But there are some things, child, that you should steal. That you must steal, if you have enough love and courage in your heart. You must snatch freedom from the hands of the tyrant. You must spirit away innocent lives before they are destroyed. You must hide secret and sacred places.” - Lian Tanner

76. “It wasn't who a person believed himself to be or what he pretended he would do in a given situation. It was what he did when he got there that defined him.” - Robert Kurson

77. “Prophet,' he said, 'Your doctrines I do not know; therefore if I accepted them, I would do it out of fear like a coward and a base man. Are you anxious that your faith be professed by cowards and base people?” - Henryk Sienkiewicz

78. “I want a man who knows something about himself. And is appalled. And has to forgive himself to get along.” - Charles Percy Snow

79. “Oh! What honour for the female sex! It is perfectly obvious that God has special regard for it when all these wretched people who destroyed the whole Kingdom – now recovered and made safe by a woman, something that 5000 men could not have done – and the traitors [have been] exterminated. Before the event they would scarcely have believed this possible.” - Christine de Pizan

80. “Pats cīnies, palīdz, domā, spried un sver,Pats esi kungs, pats laimei – durvis ver!” - Rainis

81. “It takes faith to follow your dreams and courage to reach them.” - E'yen A. Gardner

82. “What she knew was sand and wind and innumerable stars. The rumble in a camel’s throat as it swayed over shifting dunes, its trappings jingling in time with its steps beneath her. She knew the sting of thirst and the taste of dried fruit, the glare of sun and the frigid, bone-numbing cold of the air when the sun gave her throne over to the moon. She knew that, to survive, one must often revise one’s caliber, and one must completely depend upon Jesus Christ.” - V.S. Carnes

83. “Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it. I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave - that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm. And therefore, this courage allows us, as the old men said, to make ourselves useful. It allows us to be generous, which is another way of saying exactly the same thing.” - Marilynne Robinson

84. “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

85. “How reprehensible it is when those blessed with commodities insist on ignoring the poor. Better to torment them, force them into indentured servitude, inflict compulsion and blows—this at least produces a connection, fury and a pounding heart, and these too constitute a form of relationship. But to cower in elegant homes behind golden garden gates, fearful lest the breath of warm humankind touch you, unable to indulge in extravagances for fear they might be glimpsed by the embittered oppressed, to oppress and yet lack the courage to show yourself as an oppressor, even to fear the ones you are oppressing, feeling ill at ease in your own wealth and begrudging others their ease, to resort to disagreeable weapons that require neither true audacity nor manly courage, to have money, but only money, without splendor: That’s what things look like in our cities at present” - Robert Walser

86. “I told her I loved the howling sound of her harmonica. That seemed to be the limit of my courage that night, and even those spoken words had to struggle their way out of my mouth. It's all very well for words to build bridges, but sometimes I think it's a matter of knowing when to do it. Knowing when the time's right.” - Markus Zusak

87. “If ever you feel like an animal among men, be a lion.” - Criss Jami

88. “Like all bullies and marauders, Gos was a coward at heart” - L. Frank Baum

89. “As a man begins to understand the sacrifices he must make to live the life he dreams of, he often loses his courage for such a life.” - Josie Sigler

90. “I aine never seen a fox before. So, why should I be scared of you and I don't even-now know you a real fox for a fact?” - Patricia C. McKissack

91. “I am my own biggest critic. Before anyone else has criticized me, I have already criticized myself. But for the rest of my life, I am going to be with me and I don't want to spend my life with someone who is always critical. So I am going to stop being my own critic. It's high time that I accept all the great things about me.” - C. JoyBell C.

92. “See the stars, Lily?"She sighed, surrendering. "Of course.""Do you think they can see the sun coming up?""I don't know. Probably?""Do you think they're scared?""They're burning balls of gas, Calder.""Oh, c'mon. Where's the poet in you?"She exhaled, and I sensed her smile. "I see. Well, in that case, yes. They've finally come home. They are triumphant in their midnight kingdom. But the enemy approaches. They have the numbers on their side, but the enemy is bigger, stronger, with a history of winning that goes back to the dawn of time. They're definitvely terrified."I nodded. She understood my analogy."But they don't run, Calder.” - Anne Greenwood Brown

93. “Courage results when one's convictions are bigger than one's fears.” - Orrin Woodward

94. “Life has moments that feel as if the sun has blackened to tar and the entire world turned to ice.  It feels as if Hades and his vile demons have risen from the depths of Tartarus solely for the purpose of banding to personally torture you, and that their genuine intent of mental, emotional, and spiritual anguish is tearing you to shreds.  Your heart weighs as heavily as leaden legs which you would drag yourself forward with if not for the quicksand that pulls you down inch by inch, paralyzing your will and threatening oblivion.  And all the while fire and brimstone pour from the sky, pelting only you.  Truly, that is what it feels like. But that feeling is a trial that won't last forever.  Never give up.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

95. “Stefan shook his head. Th' lad's got guts , he thought. Not much sense, but guts. ” - Tamora Pierce

96. “He's got courage," Alex said."Courage!" Raoul bellowed. "That coward almost kills him and--” - Tamora Pierce

97. “It is only the brave who win life’s rewards. Those who don’t overcome their fears are destined to fail at even the least things.” - Kevis Hendrickson

98. “But if you must be clever, then be clever. Be brave. Sleep with fists closed and shoot straight.” - Catherynne M. Valente

99. “The thing about traveling alone, is that you run into your insecurities and fears times ten the normal! You run into all the good things and all the bad things about yourself on a daily basis, and are allowed the opportunity to truly become your own friend. Traveling alone is a learning process; some people travel for leisure, I travel to run into myself!” - C. JoyBell C.

100. “For each door of sadness that opens, there are a thousand means of shutting it...” - Muhammad Adb Al-Rahman Al-Arifi

101. “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. Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at your to fight or flee - and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do.” - Jim Butcher

102. “They were amazing, fierce, beautiful children.” - Adam Gidwitz

103. “To love someone with all of your heart requires reaching them where they are with the only words they can understand.” - Shannon L. Alder

104. “...he had found the courage once in his life to seize a chance at love from a person who knew how to give it. Lena prayed on these two moons that she would find that same courage.” - Ann Brashares

105. “She kept walking. The very small, brave part of her brain knew that this would be her one chance. If she turned around, she would lose it.” - Ann Brashares

106. “Courage will now be your best defence against the storm that is at hand-—that and such hope as I bring.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

107. “Stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face.” - Sabina Wurmbrand

108. “Silent acquiescence in the face of tyranny is no better than outright agreement.” - C.J. Redwine

109. “To me, empathy and compassion are among the bravest of emotions ... and faith, the bravest of convictions.” - Gerard de Marigny

110. “They forget that we, too, have earned the right to live! So I say if we are going to die, my friend, let us die trying, not sitting.” - Velma Wallis

111. “Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.” - David Ben-Gurion

112. “The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.” - Brené Brown

113. “The steeper the climb, the more incentive to reach the top.Even in the midst of the darkness, there is always a shard of light if we will but search for it hard enough and believe in it strongly enough.A name portrays the nature of its wearer. The meaning of a name, however, portrays the trueness of its wearer in depths that very few ever come to comprehend.May God bless you and keep you and give you peace in all that you do, and may we rest assured of this: that though we travel far apart and in many different directions and for long periods of time, we will meet again, if not in this lifetime, then in eternity, and there we will never have to say ‘good-bye’ again.Courage is not found in lacking fear, courage is found in not allowing your fear to rule you.Courage is really just facing fear.Do not put too much stock in the stars my boy, they are fickle and distant and do not affect the lives of men by very great a margin.” - Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

114. “Your heart’s strength is measured by how hard it holds on. Your self worth and faith is measured by finally letting go. However, your peace is measured by how long you don’t look back.” - Shannon L. Alder

115. “Believe in yourself. Under-confidence leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy that you are not good enough for your work.” - Dr Roopleen

116. “We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.” - Theodore Roosevelt

117. “Courage is not the lack of fear, it is acting in spite of it” - R.Knight

118. “Courage is more important than to be deceived by shallow victory waiting for a delayed defeat.” - Dejan Stojanovic

119. “Every man needs his Siren To check his courage and strength When he hears her song In his travels through the unknown.” - Dejan Stojanovic

120. “​Courage is a virtue appreciated in a male but considered a defect in our gender. Bold women are a threat to a world that is badly out of balance, in favor of men.” - Isabel Allende

121. “Deal with him, Hemingway!” - James Joyce

122. “Oh I know it's cliché but yeah they say that great men make it in-To places few others who even do take the risk've ever been” - Criss Jami

123. “You just do it, then if you die, you die.” - T. Scott McLeod

124. “Alors c'est une connerie l'amour? C'est ça? ça ne marche jamais? Si, ça marche. Mais il faut se battre. Se battre un petit peu. Un petit peu chaque jour, avoir le courage d'être soi-même.” - Anna Gavalda

125. “Because the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage. And if he has none, he is more than a coward. He is a sellout and a fink and a heretic, because writing is a holy chore.” - Harlan Ellison

126. “Courage is the antidote to danger.” - Erle Stanley Gardner

127. “The word that came to me now was "defiant." Because a person had to be defiant to be able to stand amid the wreckage of her life and instead of shaking a fist, pick up a hammer.” - Karen White

128. “I would rather face my fears than lose, but most people would rather lose than face their fears.” - Orrin Woodward

129. “You should holistically build yourself to be the best you. The evidence of your glorious life should be an inspiration to many . You create your world yourself in your own positive way. You are stronger than ever and bolder than you think. Brave the odds and initiate new imprints for all to aspire and follow your footprints.” - Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

130. “Speak your mind, even though your voice shakes.” - Maggie Kuhn

131. “No matter who we are, where we live, what we look like, the circumstances of our birth or the situations we face; each of us has gifts within us. Strength, beauty, courage, compassion, hope, joy, talent, imagination, reverence, wisdom, love and faith are among them. They are not like material presents we unwrap and hold in our hands. We can’t see these gifts with our eyes. But they are real and powerful. When we open ourselves to them, they can enrich every aspect of our lives. They can help us transform challenges into opportunities and tragedies into triumphs. They can help us make a difference in the world.” - Charlene Costanzo

132. “You can't do what you want to, so just do what you have to.” - Moveena Rasheed

133. “The problem isn’t that I think so highly of myself. It is just that you think so little of yourself. Live life BIG, BOLD and OUT LOUD!” - Shannon L. Alder

134. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.” - Brené Brown

135. “You. Man at the machine and man in the workshop. If tomorrow they tell you you are to make no more water-pipes and saucepans but are to make steel helmets and machine-guns, then there's only one thing to do: Say NO! You. Woman at the counter and woman in the office. If tomorrow they tell you you are to fill shells and assemble telescopic sights for snipers' rifles, then there's only one thing to do: Say NO! You. Research worker in the laboratory. If tomorrow they tell you you are to invent a new death for the old life, then there's only one thing to do: Say NO! You. Priest in the pulpit. If tomorrow they tell you you are to bless murder and declare war holy, then there's only one thing to do: Say NO! You. Pilot in your aeroplane. If tomorrow they tell you you are tocarry bombs over the cities, then there's only one thing to do: Say NO! You. Man of the village and man of the town. If tomorrow they come and give you your call-up papers, then there's only one thing to do: Say NO! You. Mother in Normandy and mother in the Ukraine, mother in Vancouver and in London, you on the Hwangho and on the Mississippi, you in Naples and Hamburg and Cairo and Oslo - mothers in all parts of the earth, mothers of the world, if tomorrow they tell you you are to bear new soldiers for new battles, then there's only one thing to do: Say NO! For if you do not say NO - if YOU do not say no - mothers, then: then! In the bustling hazy harbour towns the big ships will fall silent as corpses against the dead deserted quay walls, their once shimmering bodies overgrown with seaweed and barnacles, smelling of graveyards and rotten fish. The trams will lie like senseless glass-eyed cages beside the twisted steel skeleton of wires and track. The sunny juicy vine will rot on decaying hillsides, rice will dry in the withered earth, potatoes will freeze in the unploughed land and cows will stick their death-still legs into the air like overturned chairs. In the fields beside rusted ploughs the corn will be flattened like a beaten army. Then the last human creature, with mangled entrails and infected lungs, will wander around, unanswered and lonely, under the poisonous glowing sun, among the immense mass graves and devastated cities. The last human creature, withered, mad, cursing, accusing - and the terrible accusation: WHY? will die unheard on the plains, drift through the ruins, seep into the rubble of churches, fall into pools of blood, unheard, unanswered, the last animal scream of the last human animal - All this will happen tomorrow, tomorrow, perhaps, perhaps even tonight, perhaps tonight, if - if - You do not say NO.” - Wolfgang Borchert

136. “I’m sick of hearing it. I don’t think it’s right to stand by while innocent people are being tortured. I feel like that’s how most horrible things continue to happen. It’s because other people don’t step in to stop it.” - Kris Noel

137. “You are a creature meant to be free. Almost always, the person hardest to tell the truth to...is you. Once you can be honest with yourself, you'll find the strength and desire to be honest with others. It's the most freeing feeling imaginable. Go find a mirror and face yourself and your darkest truths. You have the light within you to chase away the dark demons that hold you down and push you back into the black corners of your past. You deserve better. You are a child of light and light hidden behind dark clouds, does nothing to brighten the world.” - Toni Sorenson

138. “I will never demean myself to speak about my courage," said Julien, coldly, "it would be mean to do so. Let the world judge by the facts.” - Stendhal

139. “Why are we doing this?" Caine asked him. "You know damned well why we're doing this. Because it's a fight. It may be THE fight. I may be the final fight. And what else are we good at, you and me? What are we going to do if we ever get out there anyway?” - Michael Grant

140. “Don't look at the present storm, but look to the Son coming.” - Anthony Liccione

141. “We give up our power to the very people who took it away from us in the first place.” - Patti Digh

142. “The death rate for people who play it safe and for those who live boldly is the same.” - Patti Digh

143. “He thought of the virtues of courage and forbearance, which become flabby when there is nothing to use them on.” - John Steinbeck

144. “Defeat ends when we launch into another battle. Failure has no end: it is a lifetime choice.” - Paulo Coelho

145. “You must dare, and dare again, and then dare a little bit more, and go on daring.” - Justin Cotillard