Quotes about courage

„To abandon your duty is not courageous. Below the courageous, there is nothing. Those are the previous Hokage's words.“

—  Hatake Kakashi, book Naruto

Source: To Obito, In Kakashi Gaiden

„Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.“

—  Anne Frank victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary 1929 - 1945

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

„Courage is hard. You have to be willing to take it on the chin if you get things wrong. Now I have clarity in my own life I’m able to focus…“

—  Billie Joe Armstrong American singer and guitarist 1972

„You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.“

—  Thomas Merton Priest and author 1915 - 1968

„Let there be no fainting of heart and no depression, and also let there be no unforeseeing fury, no blindly-striking madness. We are at the beginning of a time of terrible trial. The passage is not to be easy, the crown is not to be cheaply earned. India is going down into the valley of the shadow of death, into a great horror of darkness and suffering. Let us realise that what we are now suffering, is a small part of what we shall have to suffer, and work in that knowledge, with resolution, without hysteria…. The first need at the present moment is courage, a courage which knows not how to flinch or shrink.“

—  Sri Aurobindo Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet 1872 - 1950

Bande Mataram, 1907
India's Rebirth

„Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.“

—  Brené Brown US writer and professor 1965

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

„This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity.“

—  Rollo May US psychiatrist 1909 - 1994

As quoted in Think and Grow Rich : A Black Choice (1991) by Dennis Kimbro and Napoleon Hill, p. 104
Context: Many people feel they are powerless to do anything effective with their lives. It takes courage to break out of the settled mold, but most find conformity more comfortable. This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity.

„The ultimate courage is fighting a battle one knows they will lose; but they confront the adversary, to prevent them from winning.“

—  RJ Intindola (Gandolfo)

1978

„Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond sight at the end of a straight line; they're part of a continuous cycle that begins right here. They're not only the ending, but the beginning as well.“

—  Benjamin Hoff, book The Tao of Pooh

Source: The Tao of Pooh

„You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.“

—  William Faulkner American writer 1897 - 1962

„People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.“

—  Hermann Hesse, book Demian

Source: Demian (1919), p. 123
Context: People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. It was a scandal that a breed of fearless and sinister people ran around freely, so they attached a nickname and a myth to these people to get even with them, to make up for the many times they had felt afraid.

„You are braver and more courageous than you realize; but fail to act or speak out, for fear of displeasing others; the anguish one lives for not acting instinctively, hurts more than if you acted.“

—  RJ Intindola (Gandolfo)

1998

„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 ready.“

—  Paulo Coelho, book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym‎ [O Demônio e a srta Prym] (2000), p. x; this has also been misquoted as "A moment is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny."
Context: 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 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.

„All through my life, I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested.“

—  Muhammad Ali, book The Soul of a Butterfly

The Soul of a Butterfly, 2004
Variant: All through my life I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested.
Source: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey

„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, book Eragon

Variant: Are you willing to die for what you believe in? The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.
Source: Eragon

„Without fear there cannot be courage.“

—  Christopher Paolini American author 1983

„The only thing greater than the power of the mind is the courage of the heart“

—  John Nash American mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate 1928 - 2015

„Wounded and fleeing, heroes passed you by, while your face remained bright and your lips, smiling.
You surpassed the bounds of courage and understanding, until people claimed that you knew the unseen.
To you belongs the praise for these pearls I pronounce; you are the giver, I the arranger.
Oh, Sword never sheathed, whom none can doubt and from whom there is no refuge.
Blessed are warfare, glory and eminence; blessed are your subjects and all of Islam, for you are safe!“

—  Al-Mutanabbi Arabic poet from the Abbasid era 915 - 965

From the poem "To Sayf Al-Dawla"
Here 'Sword never sheathed' refers to 'Sayf Al-Dawla', whose name is a laqab meaning 'Sword of the Dynasty'. http://samarmedia.tv/en/video/295/al-mutanabi-arabic-poem-with-english/

„You, Socrates, began by saying that virtue can't be taught, and now you are insisting on the opposite, trying to show that all things are knowledge, justice, soundness of mind, even courage, from which it would follow that virtue most certainly can be taught.“

—  Protagoras pre-Socratic Greek philosopher -486 - -411 BC

As quoted in Protagoras by Plato