Courage is the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.
When someone acts courageously, they show themselves to be willing to confront uncertainty, danger, or even pain; in short, to face their fears.
Being courageous isn’t always easy, and there are times in our lives when we have more courage than others.
Though we might associate courage with extreme danger and difficulty, the reality for most of us is that we have to be courageous in the face of our everyday lives. We must adapt to change and face our fears, however trivial they seem to those on the outside.
These are the best quotes about courage and being courageous to inspire you to confront your fears! Remember, being courageous isn’t about fighting a single battle. It can be something as small as getting up each day and trying again.
Quotes about Courage
Courage is the hallmark of spirituality. Courage comes when you love yourself for who you are.
Amit Ray
The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.
Jim Hightower
With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.
Mark Twain
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
Dorothy Bernard
Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.
Bethany Hamilton
My definition of courage is never letting anyone define you.
Jenna Jameson
Real courage is knowing what faces you and knowing how to face it.
Timothy Dalton
Courage is on display every day, and only the courageous wring the most out of life.
Zig Ziglar
Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.
Ruth Gordon
Courage originally meant ‘To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.’
Brené Brown
Courage is not the absence of fear or despair; it is the capacity to continue on despite them, no matter how great or overwhelming they become.
Robert Fanney
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities . . . because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Winston Churchill
Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.
Eddie Rickenbacker
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
All happiness depends on courage and work.
Honoré de Balzac
Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.
C.S. Lewis
Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.
Brené Brown
There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.
L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Have courage to use your own reason!
Immanuel Kant
Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.
Thucydides
Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.
Shannon L. Adler
Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.
R.J. Palacio
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Adam Lindsay Gordon
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Aristotle
The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life.
Daniel J. Boorstin
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Nelson Mandela
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Hermann Hesse
Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.
Malcolm Gladwell
Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience.
James Freeman Clarke
It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless.
Giacamo Casanova
With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.
Margaret Mitchell
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
Harry S. Truman
Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.
Billy Graham
How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.
Benjamin Franklin
Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor – the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant ‘To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.’
Brené Brown
True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
Alfred North Whitehead
Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.
Plutarch
Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.
Ruth Gordon
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
Nelson Mandela
Courage is feeling fear, not getting rid of fear, and taking action in the face of fear.
Roy T. Bennett
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.
G.K. Chesterton
He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.
Miguel de Cervantes
There’s only one requirement of any of us, and that is to be courageous. Because courage, as you might know, defines all other human behavior.
David Letterman
Courage is risking the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar.
Osho
To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.
Henri Matisse
Quotes about Being Courageous
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
T.S. Eliot
Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
Helen Keller
One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
Maya Angelou
You can choose to let this thing bother you or let this be an adventure and welcome the challenge.
Fred Rogers
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
Muhammad Ali
All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.
Earl Nightingale
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9, NIV
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
Victor Hugo
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
Mary Anne Radmacher
It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.
Horace
The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.
Stephen King
Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.
Maya Angelou
Everyone has talent. What’s rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.
Erica Jong
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
Coco Chanel
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Have the courage to be who you are, not what people expect you to be.
David Goggins
Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don’t fail forever.
Lana del Rey
There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
Ronald Reagan
There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.
Seneca
It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
Theodore Roosevelt
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
Steve Jobs
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill
Fight hard when you are down; die hard—determine at least to do—and you won’t die at all.
James H. West
To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.
Picabo Street
Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.
Bruce Lee
Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Steve Jobs
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot
I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me.
Erica Jong
Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.
Winston Churchill
It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.
Erma Bombeck
It takes courage…to endure the sharp pains of self discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.
Marianne Williamson
Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.
Robert Louis Stevenson
If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.
Harry Hoover
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
Vincent Van Gogh
God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.
Chester W. Nimitz
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
André Gide
Courage is the secret sauce that allows you to act despite your fears.
Narayan Kamath
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’
Eleanor Roosevelt
Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.
Albert Einstein
It takes courage to examine your life and to decide that there are things you would like to change, and it takes even more courage to do something about it.
Sue Hadfield
There is no one more courageous than the person who speaks with the courage of his convictions.
Susan Cain
Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.
Madeleine L’Engle
Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done—that’s courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward.
Piers Anthony
It takes a great deal of courage to stand alone even if you believe in something very strongly.
Reginald Rose
If there was no fear, how could there be comfort? Or courage?
Veronica Rossi
A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.
Lao Tzu
If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality.
Dr. Roopleen
It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
Xiaolu Guo
The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.
Thomas Aquinas
You can choose courage, or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both.
Brene Brown
Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Quotes to Inspire Courage
Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.
Dale Carnegie
He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch
Jean-Luc Godard
Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
Pope John Paul II
Each mistake teaches you something new about yourself. There is no failure, remember, except in no longer trying. It is the courage to continue that counts.
Chris Bradford
Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
John Quincy Adams
Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.
Bethany Hamilton
People who lack the clarity, courage, or determination to follow their own dreams will often find ways to discourage yours. Live your truth and don’t EVER stop!
Steve Maraboli
Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.
Confucius
Life is not about living the safer option. Life is about living a life worth living.
Robert Thier
Courage is not limited to the battlefield or the Indianapolis 500 or bravely catching a thief in your house. The real tests of courage are much quieter. They are the inner tests, like remaining faithful when nobody’s looking, like enduring pain when the room is empty, like standing alone when you’re misunderstood.
Charles Swindoll
Trust the still, small voice that says, ‘this might work and I’ll try it.’
Diane Mariechild
Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.
Stephen Hawking
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.
Paulo Coelho
Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.
Ann Landers
You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.
Eleanor Roosevelt
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
Martin Luther King Jr.
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Alan Cohen
I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.
Maya Angelou
It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.
J.R.R. Tolkien
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
Mark Twain
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
Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it…
Wilferd Peterson
Think of yourself as an explorer. You cannot find anything new if you are unwilling to leave the shore.
Robert Greene
In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfill your potential.
Suze Orman
It takes guts and humility to admit mistakes. Admitting we’re wrong is courage, not weakness.
Roy T. Bennett
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Steve Jobs
Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
Orison Swett Marden
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
Abraham Lincoln
I have lived my life according to this principle: If I’m afraid of it, then I must do it.
Erica Jong
If you’re not willing to risk, you cannot grow. If you cannot grow, you cannot be your best. If you cannot be your best, you cannot be happy. If you cannot be happy, what else is there?
Les Brown
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Lao Tzu
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
Christopher Reeve
Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.
Karl Von Clausewitz
To overcome fear, here’s all you have to do – realize the fear is there, and do the action you fear anyway.
Peter McWilliams
It’s better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at the line for the rest of your life.
Paulo Coelho
Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.
Anne Frank
Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
Jonas Salk
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
Marie Curie
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
Dale Carnegie
It’s the hottest fires that make the hardest steel.
Kevin Yon, Born of Fire
The strongest people find the courage and caring to help others, even if they are going through their own storm.
Roy T. Bennett
You can and you will. The difficulty of it, is why you must.
Charles Rhoades, Sr., Billions
Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.
George Sheehan
We hope these courage quotes have you ready to face challenges with confidence and strength. With courage, you can do anything!