Quotes about fear
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“I believe that you've created a metaphorical universe in which you can express your darkest fears. In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves, and sometimes we do such a good job, we lose track of reality.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

Reality, Universe

“When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Source: The Analects, Other chapters

“The blackest night must end in dawn, the light dispel the dreamer's fear.”

Anne McCaffrey (1926–2011) American-Irish novelist

Light, Night

“Teachers' using grades and the fear of failure mould the brains of the young until they have lost every ounce of imagination they might once have possessed.”

Paul Karl Feyerabend book Against Method

Source: Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge

Imagination, Failure, Teachers

“We're miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentment and mortality.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Thinking

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

People, Hope

“Every thinking person fears nuclear war and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows it's madness, and every country has an excuse.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

17 min 40 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Who Speaks for Earth? [Episode 13]

War, Thinking, Personality, Madness

“Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.”

Rex Stout book The Doorbell Rang

Source: The Doorbell Rang

“I fear those big words, Stephen said, which make us so unhappy.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

“Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Interview with Charlie Rose, on PBS (1 October 2008), also reported in "Warren Buffett: I Haven't Seen As Much Economic Fear In My Adult Lifetime - Charlie Rose Interview" at CNBC (1 October 2008) http://www.cnbc.com/id/26982338 Context: You want to be greedy when others are fearful. You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It's that simple. … They're pretty fearful. In fact, in my adult lifetime, I don't think I've ever seen people as fearful economically as they are right now.

“The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all of the people.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

People

“The greatest fear of Jonathan is the”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Valentine to Clary, pg. 388
Variant: The greatest fear in Jonathan's life is the love he feels for his sister.
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

People, World

“She wept with shame for her lack of will and with fear for a love she couldn't control.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Perfect

Love

“I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy, and fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural.. to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Hate, Jealousy, Nature, Envy

“Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around us in awareness.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Anger

“I think about how people use the devil as an alias for the things they fear. The cause and effect is backward. The devil doesn't make anyone do anything. People just do things and blame the devil after.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

People, Thinking

“We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren't, or of moments that could have been found but were forever hidden in the sands.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Love, Thinking, Heart

“Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus. And that's fear.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

Travel

“Fear, what a strange thing fear was…”

Agatha Christie And Then There Were None

Source: And Then There Were None

“employers sense in me a denial of their values… they fear me. i suspect that they can see that i am forced to function in a century which i loathe.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

Sense

“Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

“Death was like an unpleasant neighbor. You didn’t talk about him for fear he might hear you and decide to pay a visit.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Death

“You can't make people love you but you can make them fear you”

Cecily von Ziegesar (1970) American writer

Love, People

“If she's sad or upset or angry, she needs to be alone-she fears a man dismissing her womanly tears.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Sadness, Tear

“Prolong not the past
Invite not the future
Do not alter your innate wakefulness
Fear not appearances
There in nothing more than this”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

Appearance, Past, Future

“I tell you, deep inside you is a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy. Deep inside your center core is truth, light, love, there is no guilt there, there is no fear there. Psychologists have never looked deep enough.”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader

Love, Truth, Light, Joy

“I fear that a life of death has made me numb to both.”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Life, Death

“He's seeing my soul, my fears, my fragility, my inability to deal with a world which i pretend to master, but about which I know nothing”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

World, Soul

“Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is a commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause--the cause of liberation.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Love, Courage

“(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.”

J.M. Coetzee book Disgrace

Source: Disgrace

“Your Father in heaven knows your name and knows your circumstance. He hears your prayers. He knows your hopes and dreams, including your fears and frustrations. And He knows what you can become through faith in Him.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

Source: Created for Greater Things

Faith, Dreams, Hope

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Source: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

As quoted in Good Advice (1993) by William Safire, p. 125

Children, Parent, Reading

“I imagine Johnny Mathis hates Bin Laden as much as I do, but could Johnny agree Bin Laden had a better speechwriter than Bush? "Axis of Evil"? Come on. "A swimmer in the ocean does not fear the rain" is much more powerful propaganda. Poetic, even.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Source: Role Models

Hate, Imagination, Evil

“I'm filled with awe, as I always am, as I watch her transform from a woman who calls me to kill a spider to a woman immune to fear.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“But Iget afraid. It's just that fear makes me sort of… angry and resentful, and I bite back at it. It's hard to describe."

It isn't hard to describe, you idiot," Aud said. "It's called courage.”

Jonathan Stroud book Heroes of the Valley

Source: Heroes of the Valley

Courage

“We must travel in the direction of our fear.”

John Berryman (1914–1972) American poet

Travel

“He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death.

In place of death there was light.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: The Death of Ivan Ilych

Death, Light

“It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dissatisfied and fearful, whereas stubbornness and foolhardiness fill their hosts with joy and assurance.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Source: The Complete Essays

Wisdom, Joy

“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label.”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

Coth, in Book Four : Coth at Porutsa, Ch. XXVI : The Realist in Defeat
Source: The Silver Stallion (1926)
Context: Yet creeds mean very little... The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label.

World, Funny

“He knew she was there by the joy and fear that overwhelmed his heart.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Pt. I, ch. 9
Source: Anna Karenina (1875–1877; 1878)

Heart, Joy

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 318)

Wise, Men, Sea, Anger

“It’s not bad people I fear so much as good people. When a person is sure that he is good, he is nearly hopeless; he gets cruel- he believes in punishment.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

People, Personality

“I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Secret

“living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Life

“fear life but don't die, your alone, everybody's alone, oh Cody Pomeray you can't win you can't lose all is ephemeral all is hurt”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Life, Hurt

“When we face our fears, we can find our freedom.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Freedom

“Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“That's all it takes, one drop of fear to curdle love into hate.”

James M. Cain (1892–1977) Novelist, short story writer, journalist

Love, Hate

“There is only one thing I fear now-love. For I have seen it and I have felt it and I know that it is love, not death, that undoes us.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Love, Death

“In a kinder world," he whispered, "one I promise you I've seen, men and women flirt and dance and love with only the fear of what it would mean without the other in their lives.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

Love, Women, Men, World

“God knows I am not too hippy. Perhaps because I am too much around the hip and I fear fads for, like anybody else, I like something that tends to last.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns

God

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Variants: I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots. I fear the day when technology overlaps our humanity. It will be then that the world will have permanent ensuing generations of idiots. 1995 film Powder includes a similar quotation attributed to Einstein: It’s become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity. Although it is a popular quote on the internet, there is no substantial evidence that Einstein actually said that. It does not appear in "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton University Press nor in any reliable source. " Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/19/tech-surpass/" concluded that it probably emerged as a meme on the internet as late as 2012. Misattributed

World

“There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”

George Eliot book The Mill on the Floss

The Mill on the Floss (1860)

Music, Feeling

“Before you conquer the mountain, you must learn to overcome your fear.”

Isabel Allende book City of the Beasts

Source: City of the Beasts

Mountain, Learning

“Don't let fear govern your decision.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Guardian

Source: The Guardian

Decision

“The scariest, most terrifying thing that I fear?"
Yes."
My Imagination."
I thought you were going to say "Fear, itself."
Then you have a small imagination."
Roland and Eddie”

Stephen King The Dark Tower

Source: The Dark Tower

Imagination

“It seems to me that the less I fight my fear, the less it fights back. If I can relax, fear relaxes, too.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Fight

“Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice.”

Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British journalist

“i fear no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Source: Selected Poems

Fate, Secret, World, Beauty

“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It's our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

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

Light, Joy

“I often don't say things out loud, even when I should. I contain and compartmentalize to a disturbing degree: In my belly-basement are hundreds of bottles of rage, despair, fear, but you'd never guess from looking at me.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Rage, Despair

“Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. As powerful as it was, its grip on me would loosen. It would pass.”

Louise Erdrich book The Round House

Source: The Round House

“What is stronger, fear or hope?”

Lance Armstrong book It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Hope

“But fear of making mistakes can itself become a huge mistake, one that prevents you from living, for life is risky and anything less is already a loss.”

Rebecca Solnit (1961) Author and essayist from United States

Source: A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Life, Loss

“When you fear to fail, you fear something that has not happened yet. You predict your own failure, and by inaction, lock yourself into it.”

Robin Hobb book Ship of Destiny

Source: Ship of Destiny

Failure

“I fear I must agree," Magnus murmured. He pressed a hand over his heart and his new peacock-blue waistcoast. "I strive to find some respect in my heart for you, but alas! It seems an impossible quest.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale

Heart

“We hang out, we help one another, we tell one another our worst fears and biggest secrets, and then just like real sisters, we listen and don't judge.”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Source: Viola in Reel Life

Secret, Sister, Help

“Fear saps passion.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Do the Work

Passion

“Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Hyperion http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5436, Bk. IV, Ch. 8 (1839).

Past, Future, Heart

“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Music, Time

“Hope that is the only antidote to fear.”

Lance Armstrong book It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Hope

“Fear comes with imagination, it’s a penalty, it’s the price of imagination.”

Thomas Harris Red Dragon

Source: Red Dragon

Penalty, Imagination

“I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating.”

Alan Paton (1903–1988) South African writer and activist

Cry, the Beloved Country, 1948
Source: Cry, The Beloved Country

Love, Hate, Heart

“All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Source: Writings: Autobiography/Notes on the State of Virginia/Public & Private Papers/Addresses/Letters

Truth, World

“she smiled at him, and at her own fears.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Smile

“We may say we're looking for love, following dreams, chasing the dollar, but aren't we just looking for a place where we belong? A place where our thoughts, feelings, and fears are understood? - Ridley Jones”

Lisa Unger book Beautiful Lies

Source: Beautiful Lies

Love, Dreams, Feeling

“When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

People, Drawing

“sometimes there are reasons for our fears that we can’t
quite explain. Sometimes it’s just something we feel in our bones, something we know to be true, but
would sound foolish to anyone else.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Viscount Who Loved Me

Feeling

“I envy what I fear and hate what I envy.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

Hate, Envy

“Finally, she mused that human existence is as brief as the life of autumn grass, so what was there to fear from taking chances with your life?”

Mo Yan book Red Sorghum

Source: Red Sorghum: A Novel of China (1986/1987)

Life, Autumn, Grass, Chance

“They will be like shadows, they will be like wraiths, gray members of a congregation of nightmare; hark! his long wavering howl… an aria of fear made audible.
The wolfsong is the sound of the rending you will suffer, in itself a murdering.”

Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist

Source: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

Suffering

“But what are our stories if not the mirrors we hold up to our fears?”

Wally Lamb book I Know This Much Is True

Source: I Know This Much Is True

“How can you blame a person for his fears and weaknesses unless you have felt the same and done differently?”

Amy Tan The Kitchen God's Wife

Source: The Kitchen God's Wife

Personality

“perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Shoe

“Farid had brought an invisible guest with him.
Fear.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

“We live in a time of fear," Skulduggery said, "where we're too scared of upsetting the status quo to ask the questions we need to be asking.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Question, Time

“Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Religion, Hope, Nature, Daughters

“Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Heart

“Life is for the living. Don't let the fear of striking out let you from keep you from playing the game.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Life, Game

“Here is a list of fearful things:
The jaws of sharks, a vulture's wings,
The rabid bite of the dog's of war,
The voice of one who went before.
But most of all the mirror's gaze,
which counts us out our numbered days.”

Clive Barker Days of Magic, Nights of War

Abarat, Book One
Source: Days of Magic, Nights of War

War, Dogs

“Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

In reference to the Alabama Council on Human Relations, an organization which was joined by King, whose church's meeting room was used to hold monthly meetings for the Montgomery chapter the council. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958)
1950s
Context: Although the Montgomery council never had a large membership, it played an important role. As the only truly interracial group in Montgomery, it served to keep the desperately needed channels of communication open between the races.
Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated. In providing an avenue of communication, the council was fulfilling a necessary condition for better race relations in the South.

Men, Hate, Communication

“One must plan for the future and anticipate the future without fearing the future.”

Robin Hobb book Ship of Magic

Source: Ship of Magic

Future

“Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level or awareness you find yourself to be.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: The Active Side of Infinity

Forgetting