“The most unfortunate thing that happens to a person who fears failure is that he limits himself by becoming afraid to try anything new.”

“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

“Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

“He who takes himself to account gets benefitted, and the one who gets negligent and careless about himself bears loss. The one who fears (Allah) becomes peaceful, and the one who takes lesson becomes most clear sighted and discerning. He who becomes most clear sighted, understands; and he who understands and comprehends becomes knowledgeable and informed.”

Ali al-Rida (770–818) eighth of the Twelve Imams

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

“The most intolerant advocate is he who is trying to convince himself.”

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

“I don't think victory over death… is anything so superficial as a person fulfilling their normal span of life. It can be twofold; a victory over death by the man who faces it for himself without fear, and a victory by those who, loving him, know that death is but a little thing compared with the fact that he lived and was the kind of person he was.”

Vera Brittain book Testament of Youth

“If a person has no hope, he is truly blessed because that person has no fear of failure.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

“The brave man is not the one without fear but the one who does what he must despite being afraid. To succeed, you must be willing to risk total failure; you must learn this.”

Raymond E. Feist book The King's Buccaneer

“The Brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist