courage Memorable Quotes

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God, 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
US Protestant theologian (1892 - 1971)

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads.

Erica Jong

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

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Mark Twain
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)

The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.

Corra Harris

Most affections are habits or duties we lack the courage to end.

Henri de Montherlant

We are here to add to the sum of human goodness. To prove the thing exists. And however futile each individual act of courage or generosity, self-sacrifice or grace-it still proves the thing exists. Each act adds to the fund. It needs replenishment. Not only because evil flourishes, and is, most indefensibly, defended. But because goodness is no longer a respectable aim in life. The hound of hell, envy, has driven it from the house.

Josephine Hart, "Sin"

When you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner. Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as your sword.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Irish dramatist & politician (1751 - 1816)

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
French dramatist, novelist, & poet (1802 - 1885)

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... it takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.

Albert Einstein
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.

Robert Louis Stevenson
Scottish author (1850 - 1894)

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

Sydney Smith
English essayist (1771 - 1845)

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.

Abraham Lincoln
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Reinhold Niebuhr, in a sermon in 1943
US Protestant theologian (1892 - 1971)

The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns.

George Santayana
US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952)

Sometimes it takes courage to give into temptation.

Oscar Wilde
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 - 1900)

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world?s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to Complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.

Alexander Fraser Tyler, Cycle of Democracy (1770)

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.

Robert F. Kennedy, 1966 speech
US Democratic politician (1925 - 1968)

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering you own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.

Saint Francis de Sales

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