“but the bravest man among us is afraid of himself”

— Oscar Wilde, book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "but the bravest man among us is afraid of himself" by Oscar Wilde?

Oscar Wilde812

Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

“The man who shot Liberty Valance,
He was the bravest of them all.”

Hal David (1921–2012) American lyricist

Song The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

“You have surely noticed among schoolboys, that the one that is regarded by all as the boldest is the one who has no fear of his father, who dares to say to the others, "Do you think I am afraid of him?" On the other hand, if they sense that one of their number is actually and literally afraid of his father, they will readily ridicule him a little. Alas, in men’s fear-ridden rushing together into a crowd (for why indeed does a man rush into a crowd except because he is afraid!) there, too, it is a mark of boldness not to be afraid, not even of God. And if someone notes that there is an individual outside the crowd who is really and truly afraid – not of the crowd, but of God, he is sure to be the target of some ridicule. The ridicule is usually glossed over somewhat and it is said: a man should love God. Yes, to be sure, God knows that man’s highest consolation is that God is love and that man is permitted to love Him. But let us not become too forward, and foolishly, yes, blasphemously, dismiss the tradition of our fathers, established by God Himself: that really and truly a man should fear God. This fear is known to the man who is himself conscious of being an individual, and thereby is conscious of his eternal responsibility before God.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Søren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart, 1847 Steere translation p. 196-197
1840s, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847), Purity of Heart (1847)

“The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle; but he dreads disgrace yet more.”

Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) Royal Navy Admiral

Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain, Volume 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1897, p. 52; attributed by Mahan to Locker's Greenwich Gallery article "Torrington".
1800s

“Well, every one for himself, and Providence for us all--as the elephant said when he danced among the chickens.”

Charles Reade (1814–1884) British writer

A Simpleton (1873)

“What can he mean by coming among us? He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.”

James Boswell book The Life of Samuel Johnson

Spoken by Samuel Foote about a "law-Lord" (1783)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

“Well, every one for himself, and Providence for us all--as the elephant said when he danced among the chickens.”

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) English writer and social critic and a Journalist

Charles Reade, A Simpleton (1873)
Misattributed

“Maybe anything's right, he mumbled. Yes, if the world as men had made it was right, then anything else was right, any act a man took to satisfy himself, murder, theft, torture. He straightened with a start. What was happening to him? … He was going to do something, but what? Yes, he was afraid of himself, afraid of doing some nameless thing.”

Richard Wright (1908–1960) African-American writer

Eight Men (1961)

“A man must have faith in himself to be of any use in the world.”

William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospi…

The Faith that Heals (1910)
Context: A man must have faith in himself to be of any use in the world. There may be very little on which to base it — no matter, but faith in one's powers, in one's mission is essential to success. Confidence once won, the rest follows naturally; and with strong faith in himself a man becomes a local center for its radiation. St. Francis, St. Theresa, Ignatius Loyola, Florence Nightingale, the originator of every cult or sect or profession has possessed this infective faith. And in the ordinary everyday work of the doctor confidence, assurance (in the proper sense of the word) is an asset without which it is very difficult to succeed.

“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.”

Raymond Chandler book The Simple Art of Murder

essay, first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly (November, 1945)
The Simple Art of Murder (1950)

“The gnani is afraid of nothing. But he pities the man who is afraid. After all, to be born, to live and to die is natural. To be afraid is not. (…).”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Courage
Source: I am That, P.183.

“but the bravest man among us is afraid of himself”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Oscar Wilde812

Related quotes

Related topics