His only authority was his own courage. Any officer could have shot him to death. But he feared nothing for himself and committed himself totally. It was as if his courage was enough to protect himself from everything. --Tom Lantos, on Raoul Wallenberg (in He Gave His Life for Others)

We must assume our existence as broadly as we in any way can; everything, even the unheard of must be possible in it. This is at the bottom the only courage that is demanded of us: to have courage for the most strange, the most inexplicable. --Rainer Maria Rilke (in What the #$*! Do We Know?!)

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. --Keshavan Nair (in What Makes A Hero?)

We must assume our existence as broadly as we in any way can; everything, even the unheard-of, must be possible in it. This is at bottom the only courage that is demanded of us: to have courage for the most strange, the most inexplicable. --Rainer Maria Rilke (in Extraordinary Life)

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own good. --Pablo Casals (in The Power of Nice)

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. --W. Clement Stone (in Turning Values into Action)

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. --Mark Twain (in How to Cultivate Ethical Courage)

Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. --Maya Angelou (in David Whyte on Courage)

“The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth.” --Albert Einstein (in Untitled)

Courage is fear that has said its prayers. --Karl Barth (in Untitled)

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened. --Billy Graham (in Untitled)

We eventually learn that spirituality is not about leaving life's problems behind, but about continually confronting them with honesty and courage. It is about ending our feeling of separation from others by healing our relationships with parents, co-workers,and friends. It is about bringing heightened awareness and compassion to our family life, careers, and community service. --J. Krishnamurti (in Untitled)

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires...courage." --Ralph Waldo Emerson (in Untitled)

Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes over night. 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 (in Untitled)

Courage is grace under pressure. --Ernest Hemingway (in Untitled)

Compassion for the suffering of others is not weakness. Acting from compassion, when those around you do not, takes more courage and strength of character than going along with everyone else's cruelty. --Norm Phelps (in Untitled)

If you have the courage to touch life for the first time, you will never know what hit you. Everything man has thought, felt and experienced is gone, and nothing is put in its place. --U.G. Krishnamurti (in Courage to Touch Life)

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. --Albert Einstein (in Untitled)

Being brittle and hard is easy; It takes courage to be kind. Being stingy and selfish comes naturally to the weak; It takes strength to be compassionate. Holding on to the self is not wisdom; It takes faith to let go. Doubts and fear are greed for benefit; It takes giving to be happy. --Rev. Heng Sure (in It Takes Giving)

True peace is always possible. Yet it requires strength and practice, particularly in times of great difficulty. To some, peace and non-violence are synonymous with passivity and weakness. In truth, practicing peace and non-violence is far from passive. To practice peace, to make peace alive in us, is to actively cultivate understanding, love, and compassion, even in the face of mis-perception and conflict. Practicing peace, especially in times of war, requires courage. --Thich Nhat Hanh (in True Peace is Always Possible)

We talk about martial arts having three levels. The first level we talk about the physical: Sword on your hand is part of your body. You use like it's your arm. The second part, you don't (really) have a sword but the sword in your heart. Before the physical contact, maybe you can scare them. Maybe you can use imagination, talking. Make them afraid. Third level, the highest level, you love your enemy. In other words, mercy is courage. --Jet Li (in Art of Martial Arts)

I find it almost incomprehensible that the same species that is capable of producing Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and daily acts of enormous courage and kindness, is also capable of wreaking havoc on our global environment, producing tens of thousands of nuclear warheads, and leaving billions of people without their basic needs met. --Ocean Robbins (in Incomprehensible)

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. --Andre Gide (in Envision)

So often it's a matter of trading in. Old lamps for new. Small dreams for big ones. So often all it requires is the courage to accept the responsibility of knowing you are bigger than your smallness. --Pavi Krishnan (in Untitled)

Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears. --Arthur Koestler (in Untitled)

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. --Erich Fromm (in Sleep It Off)

Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears. --Arthur Koestler (in Fearless Heroes)

Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one's courage. --Anais Nin (in Class of One)

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 (in Need A Lightbulb? Change the World.)

Some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do and see and taste and experience much less than usual ... And for a man who has let himself be drawn completely out of himself by his activity, nothing is more difficult than to sit still and rest, doing nothing at all. The very act of resting is the hardest and most courageous act he can perform. --Thomas Merton (in Creativity in the Daily Commute)

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. --Ambrose Redmoon (in A 19 Year Old's AIDS Diary)

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage--pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically--to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside. --Stephen Covey (in Never Check Email In The Morning)

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. --Robert Kennedy (in Pharmaceutical For The People)

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love. --Rainer Maria Rilke (in New Hampshire Senate Makes History)

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream. --Martin Luther King Jr. (in Triple Amputee Earns Medical Degree)

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. --Erich Fromm (in How Captcha Puzzles Serve)

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. --Erich Fromm (in The Six Myths of Creativity)

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else. --Erma Bombeck (in Dream: Children of Calcutta)

The courage to penetrate and power to see clearly the meaning of things hidden beyond the situation prevailing around us and to act up to the discovered meaning is what is known as revolutionary insight ... Revolution can take place only where there is this power of penetrating insight. --Vinoba Bhave (in Peace, Love and Ice Cream)

I am a believer in nonviolence and I say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practiced, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people. There is advantage only in construction. I want to tell you categorically I will not support anybody in destruction. --Abdul Ghaffar (Badshah) Khan (in The Non-violent Soldier of Islam)

Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name. --Robert Louis Stevenson (in 16-year-Old Sails Solo Around the World)

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. --Andre Gide (in The Plastiki Expedition)

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. --E. F. Schumacher (in 31 Ways to Jumpstart Local Economy)

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. --Reinhold Niebuhr (in The Limits of Control)

Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy. --Dean Koontz (in Wired To Care)

No one wishes for crisis, but when crises come, they can call forth our best impulses, those of compassion, courage, creativity, and community.(...) If our generation is called to bear a burden of that healing, it is a powerful calling and honor and one within our capability. --David Spangler (in Haitian Doctor Couple Turn Home into Hospital)

Courage is grace under pressure. --Ernest Hemingway (in Canada's Bravery Awards)

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. --Raymond Lindquist (in Adventurer leaves NY Career to Walk Across the US)

It is only through courage, persistence, hope and love that we can start saving lives together. --The Flood Sisters (in Three Sisters and a Miracle)

We rely upon artists to articulate what most of us can only feel in joy and sorrow. Whenever I feel my courage wavering I rush to them. They will give me the wisdom of acceptance, the will and resilience to push on. --Helen Hayes (in Giving Slums a Human Face)