“Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage.”

As quoted in French Writers of the Past (2000) by Carol A. Dingle, p. 126
Variant: Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update July 3, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage." by Anaïs Nin?

Anaïs Nin photo

Anaïs Nin278

writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903–1977

Related quotes

“There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away.”

Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate

Review of the book My Hope for America
Cannibals and Christians (1966)

“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”

Jerome David Salinger book The Catcher in the Rye

Mr. Spencer
Source: The Catcher in the Rye (1951), Chapter 2

“The world is big … May it please the One who perchance is to expand the human heart to life’s full measure.”

Marguerite Yourcenar book The Abyss

The Highroad, p. 11
The Abyss (1968)

“Faith is nothing else than reason grown courageous — reason raised to its highest power, expanded to its widest vision.”

L. P. Jacks (1860–1955) British educator, philosopher, and Unitarian minister

"Religious Perplexities" (1922), his Hibbert Lecture.

“Inuring children gently to suffer some degrees of pain without shrinking, is a way to gain firmness to their minds, and lay a foundation for courage and resolution in the future part of their lives.”

John Locke book Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Sec. 115
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

“But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 2.40-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

“A people is not led according to its will; the democratic formula; nor according to the will of one individual: the dictatorial formula. But according to laws. I do not talk here of man-made laws. There are norms, natural laws of life; and there are norms, natural laws of death. Laws of life and laws of death. A nation is headed for life or death according to its respect for one or the other of these laws.”

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) Romanian politician

For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Politics

“Really, according to the shrinks, I am angry at everyone ever. Especially them.

I am all anger and resentment all the time.

Not one of them has ever suggested that maybe I lie because the world is better the way I tell it.”

Justine Larbalestier (1967) Australian young-adult fiction author

Source: Liar

“A Catholic monk is one who doesn't have the courage to face life fully.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Un monaco cattolico è colui che non ha il coraggio di affrontare appieno la vita.
Source: prevale.net

“Simplify your life. You don't grow spiritual, you shrink spiritual.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 16

Related topics