“It’s interesting to observe the fascination children have with fear. Whether it’s movies, books, or Halloween, part of them wants to be scared at the same time another part doesn’t. It’s like being tickled. There’s delight in fright. Perhaps it’s their way of learning about fear, of gradually coming to know the difference between what’s real and imagined. It’s a knack that takes continual practice. But as we mature, society convinces us that fear is a weakness, and we stop exploring it. Sure, we may still go to horror movies and read Stephen King novels, but we no longer engage fear like we used to. And as a result, we lose our perspective. Instead of flinching when someone says, “Boo!” we slide further into our cocoons.”

“The answer to fear isn’t courage or confidence; it’s learning to trust yourself.”

“Maybe there would be a little less fear in the world if we all had the courage to share our own. Maybe then we wouldn’t feel so alone.”

“Fear is a survival instinct, after all. When there’s no longer a chance of survival, there should no longer be a reason for fear to exist.”

“There really is only one fear. It’s just broken down into many little fears. The one fear is that we can’t handle our fears. That’s why we have them, to go through them.”

“Courage is merely a result of vanity and pride. We act valiantly not out of selfless concern and responsibility but out of our own conceit and egoism. If not for an audience there would be less heroes.”

“This is the truth: We are a nation accustomed to being afraid. If I’m being honest, not just with you but with myself, it’s not just the nation, and it’s not just something we’ve grown used to. It’s the world, and it’s an addiction. People crave fear. Fear justifies everything. Fear makes it okay to have surrendered freedom after freedom, until our every move is tracked and recorded in a dozen databases the average man will never have access to. Fear creates, defines, and shapes our world, and without it, most of us would have no idea what to do with ourselves. Our ancestors dreamed of a world without boundaries, while we dream new boundaries to put around our homes, our children, and ourselves. We limit our potential day after day in the name of a safety that we refuse to ever achieve. We took a world that was huge with possibility, and we made it as small as we could.”