Courage is the quiet force that propels us forward, often in the face of fear or adversity. It's the inner strength that enables us to confront uncertainties, make decisions, and take action, even when the outcome is uncertain. Throughout history, thinkers, leaders, and everyday heroes have extolled the virtues of bravery, leaving behind a legacy of wisdom to guide and inspire us. In this collection, we've gathered 78 of the most inspiring quotes about courage to uplift your spirit, encourage resilience, and remind you that, no matter the challenge, bravery can be found when you need it the most. Whether you're facing personal trials, professional hurdles, or moments of self-doubt, let these words serve as a beacon of strength and resolve.
1. “Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.” - John Quincy Adams
2. “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
3. “Life is mostly froth and bubble,Two things stand like stone.Kindness in another's trouble,Courage in your own.” - Adam Lindsay Gordon
4. “Anger is the prelude to courage.” - Eric Hoffer
5. “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.” - Paulo Coelho
6. “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” - Vincent Van Gogh
7. “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
8. “It was the only thing I ever really wanted. And that’s the sin that can’t be forgiven--that I hadn’t done what I wanted. It feels so dirty and pointless and monstrous, as one feels about insanity, because there’s no sense to it, no dignity, nothing but pain--and wasted pain...why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage.” - Ayn Rand
9. “….it was a brave man’s fear. I knew what he meant. What must a brave general feel when he knows the battle has gone against him and nothing remains but death?” - Anne Rice
10. “Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that's creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator.What makes someone an artist? I don't think is has anything to do with a paintbrush. There are painters who follow the numbers, or paint billboards, or work in a small village in China, painting reproductions. These folks, while swell people, aren't artists. On the other hand, Charlie Chaplin was an artist, beyond a doubt. So is Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod. You can be an artists who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances.An artists is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artists takes it personally.That's why Bob Dylan is an artist, but an anonymous corporate hack who dreams up Pop 40 hits on the other side of the glass is merely a marketer. That's why Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, is an artists, while a boiler room of telemarketers is simply a scam.Tom Peters, corporate gadfly and writer, is an artists, even though his readers are businesspeople. He's an artists because he takes a stand, he takes the work personally, and he doesn't care if someone disagrees. His art is part of him, and he feels compelled to share it with you because it's important, not because he expects you to pay him for it.Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn't matter. The intent does.Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.” - Seth Godin
11. “I am not a courageous person by nature. I have simply discovered that, at certain key moments in this life, you must find courage in yourself, in order to move forward and live. It is like a muscle and it must be exercised, first a little, and then more and more. All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap.” - John Patrick Shanley
12. “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.” - TEDDY ROOSEVELT
13. “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
14. “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.” - Bethany Hamilton
15. “There is nothing in this life that can destroy you but yourself. Bad things happen to everyone, but when they do, you can't just fall apart and die. You have to fight back. If you don't, you're the one who loses in the end. But if you do keep going and fight back, you win.” - Alexandra Monir
16. “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
17. “I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.” - Thomas Jefferson
18. “The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.” - Carrie Jones
19. “Sometimes, the things They say, the laws They make, the way the world spins doesn't make any sense at all...Which is exactly why you have to ask "Why?" and keep on asking until you get the TRUTH...” - Joe Kelly
20. “Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.” - Martin Luther
21. “Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” - Pope John Paul II
22. “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
23. “Many would be cowards if they had courage enough.” - Thomas Fuller
24. “Hannah expected this to make her sob even more, but instead she found her tears drying up and her tummy growing warm. How dare they? How dare they do this to little girls? She understood now why her parents go so angry when they saw the result of bombers in the white hot streets of the Middle East, why men and women wailed in anger as well as grief as they lifted the limp bodies of children from the rubble. How dare they? No, she wasn't going to die like this, wrapped up like some helpless baby.” - Stephen M. Irwin
25. “I've got a theory, it could be bunnies...I've got a theor-Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposesThey've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses.And what's with all the carrots-?What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?Bunnies, bunnies it must be bunnies!...or maybe midgets...” - Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
26. “This isn't going to be pretty. Rules will be broken. Friendships will be tested. And huge risks will be taken. But they're small prices to pay for true love and freedom, right?” - Lisi Harrison
27. “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
28. “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
29. “It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do.” - E.A. Bucchianeri
30. “Courage~ What makes the flag on the mast to wave? What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot?~Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz” - L. Frank Baum
31. “I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun; and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a Shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
32. “Let come the forces of night! We will stand!" "We will get the hell out of here is what we will do," I muttered.” - Jim Butcher
33. “Fear is the lack of faith in one's ability to create powerful solutions.” - T.F. Hodge
34. “The faithful man perceives nothing less than opportunity in difficulties. Flowing through his spine, faith and courage work together: Such a man does not fear losing his life, thus he will risk losing it at times in order to empower it. By this he actually values his life more than the man who fears losing his life. It is much like leaping from a window in order to avoid a fire yet in that most crucial moment knowing that God will appear to catch you.” - Criss Jami
35. “You can't really know what you are made of until you are tested.” - O. R. Melling
36. “They sell courage of a sort in the taverns. And another sort, though not for sale, a man can find in the confessional. Try the alehouses and the churches, Hugh. In either a man can be quiet and think.” - Ellis Peters
37. “That was courage, Keller thought. Not doing something without being afraid, but doing something even though you were afraid.” - L.J. Smith
38. “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
39. “Goldstein, you'd be a pretty good boy if you wasn't so chicken.” - Norman Mailer
40. “Courage is not beating up the bully or letting the bully beat you up, it is standing strong before the bully and seeing him for what he truly is: a child of God in need of an attitude adjustment.” - Toni Sorenson
41. “when I am feelinglowall i have to do iswatch my catsand mycouragereturns” - Charles Bukowski
42. “May your dreams be larger than mountains and may you have the courage to scale their summits.” - Harley King
43. “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
44. “Pats cīnies, palīdz, domā, spried un sver,Pats esi kungs, pats laimei – durvis ver!” - Rainis
45. “From a purely physical standpoint she didn't have a chance, but her attitude was that death was better than capitulation.” - Stieg Larsson
46. “He squinted at her. He recalled the tears in her eyes that had not fallen into her teacup. No, it wasn’t a revelation. Not even to him. Yet, this was the same woman who had stolen a camel right out from under the Anti-Zionist army’s nose. She’d taken his hand, thrown herself down a sand dune on a dare, and then beaten him back up it. She’d glared at him and refused to part from his side. A coward? “Never,” he said again.” - V.S. Carnes
47. “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” - Raymond Lindquist
48. “A lot of pieces I have written have to do with courage. As a result, people think that I am naturally brave. But what people don't know, is that I grew up with phobias and many fears. I was scared of everything. So, I write of courage not because I have not known fear, but I write of courage because I have walked with fear but I have made the choice not to fear it.” - C. JoyBell C.
49. “IT IS BY CHOICE AND NOT BY CHANCES THAT WE CHANGE OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.” - Nadia Sahari
50. “Boys [should be] inured from childhood to trifling risks and slight dangers of every possible description, such as tumbling into ponds and off of trees, etc., in order to strengthen their nervous system... They ought to practice leaping off heights into deep water. They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream over a narrow unsafe plank for fear of a ducking. They ought never to decline to climb up a tree, to pull fruit merely because there is a possibility of their falling off and breaking their necks. I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter all kinds of risks, in order to prepare them to meet and grapple with risks and dangers incident to man’s career with cool, cautious self-possession...” - R. M. Ballantyne
51. “If everything you say gets laughed at... then you become afraid of everyone... and are no longer able to speak... even knowing all that does is bother everyone... Your heart.......shuts down... And your words die....” - Natsuki Takaya
52. “If ever you feel like an animal among men, be a lion.” - Criss Jami
53. “I have no expectation that any man will read history aright who thinks that what was done in a remote age, by men whose names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what he is doing today.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
54. “If we only arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.” - Rainer Maria Rilke
55. “Have nuts and be nuts.” - Criss Jami
56. “I looked along the aisle and saw her, and it was as if I saw her for the first time. Everything changed. The ancient featureless interior of me spangled orange, mint, cat-blue. I looked back to the window immediately, my face damp, my breath caught. And worried I would never have the courage to look at her again.” - Sonya Hartnett
57. “You're mine, Echo, and I'll treasure you forever.” - Nadège Richards
58. “Why tinker with the plain truth that we hurry the darker races to their graves in order to take their land & its riches? Wolves don’t sit in their caves, concocting crapulous theories of race to justify devouring a flock of sheep! “Intellectual courage”? True “intellectual courage” is to dispense with these fig leaves & admit all peoples are predatory, but White predators, with our deadly duet of disease dust & firearms, are examplars of predacity par excellence, & what of it?” - David Mitchell
59. “I’ve learned that sometimes, when you’re afraid but you keep on moving forward, that’s the biggest kind of courage there is.” - Cynthia Hand
60. “Courage... is fear holding on just a bit longer.” - Kathryn Lasky
61. “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
62. “and when hecatches meoff guardand says'i love you'i catch himoff guardand say 'i need your help.” - David Levithan
63. “Believe in yourself. Under-confidence leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy that you are not good enough for your work.” - Dr Roopleen
64. “It takes a great deal of courage to stand alone even if you believe in something very strongly.” - Reginald Rose
65. “Courage is more important than to be deceived by shallow victory waiting for a delayed defeat.” - Dejan Stojanovic
66. “You told me to tell the truth, and this is exactly why I didn’t want to. You want me to think I’m selfish.” “I want you to own your thoughts and actions, and not be afraid of them. Accepting your limitations is every bit as important as embracing your strengths.” - Dawn Jayne
67. “The more loving we can be, the more powerful we become.” - Silvia Hartmann
68. “They looked at each other. They weren't thinking anymore. The time for that had come and gone. Smashed smiles lay ahead of them. But that would be later. Lay Ter.” - Arundhati Roy
69. “Speak your mind, even though your voice shakes.” - Maggie Kuhn
70. “I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I'd done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible” - Raoul Wallenberg
71. “I don't admire the person who does what they want to do. I admire the person who does what they're afraid to do.” - Donna Lynn Hope
72. “You are guilty of no evil, Ransom of Thulcandra, except a little fearfulness. For that, the journey you go on is your pain, and perhaps your cure: for you must be either mad or brave before it is ended.” - C.S. Lewis
73. “Underlying the attack on psychotherapy, I believe, is a recognition of the potential power of any relationship of witnessing. The consulting room is a privileged space dedicated to memory. Within that space, survivors gain the freedom to know and tell their stories. Even the most private and confidential disclosure of past abuses increases the likelihood of eventual public disclosure. And public disclosure is something that perpetrators are determined to prevent. As in the case of more overtly political crimes, perpetrators will fight tenaciously to ensure that their abuses remain unseen, unacknowledged, and consigned to oblivion. The dialectic of trauma is playing itself out once again. It is worth remembering that this is not the first time in history that those who have listened closely to trauma survivors have been subject to challenge. Nor will it be the last. In the past few years, many clinicians have had to learn to deal with the same tactics of harassment and intimidation that grassroots advocates for women, children and other oppressed groups have long endured. We, the bystanders, have had to look within ourselves to find some small portion of the courage that victims of violence must muster every day. Some attacks have been downright silly; many have been quite ugly. Though frightening, these attacks are an implicit tribute to the power of the healing relationship. They remind us that creating a protected space where survivors can speak their truth is an act of liberation. They remind us that bearing witness, even within the confines of that sanctuary, is an act of solidarity. They remind us also that moral neutrality in the conflict between victim and perpetrator is not an option. Like all other bystanders, therapists are sometimes forced to take sides. Those who stand with the victim will inevitably have to face the perpetrator's unmasked fury. For many of us, there can be no greater honor. p.246 - 247Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. February, 1997” - Judith Lewis Herman
74. “When we’re not true to our thoughts and not true to the feelings we have deep inside, we find ourselves unhappy. Be courageous enough to align your life with your feelings, desires, and sense of purpose.” - Steve Maraboli
75. “Don't look at the present storm, but look to the Son coming.” - Anthony Liccione
76. “How I wish you could have known me in my strength.” - Marilynne Robinson
77. “You gave me the courage to love. To dared to dream for things I never imagined were possible for me.” - D.C. Akers
78. “Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.” - Ernest Hemingway
