Let religion be to us the wonder and lure
of that which is only partly known and understood:
An eye that glories in nature's majesty and beauty,
and a heart that rejoices in deeds of kindness and of courage.

- Vincent B. Silliman

The sun will stand as your best man
And whistle
When you have found the courage
To marry forgiveness
When you have found the courage
to marry
Love.

- Hafiz of Persia

Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that held its ground.

- Rosa Parks

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

- T. S. Eliot

Freedom lies in bold action.

- Robert Frost

First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events.

- Marie Curie

?Without dreams, there can be no courage. And without courage, there can be no action.

- Wim Wenders

May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young.

- Bob Dylan

Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave.

- Aristotle

Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all people, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

- Elie Wiesel

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

- Louis D. Brandeis

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

- Anais Nin

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.

- Amelia Earhart

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

- Saint Francis de Sales



I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.

- Maya Angelou



Do one thing every day that scares you.

- Eleanor Roosevelt



The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

- Jim Hightower



A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson



What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

- Vincent van Gogh



Grace means more than gifts. In grace something is transcended, once and for all overcome. Grace happens in spite of something; it happens in spite of separateness and alienation. Grace means that life is once again united with life, self is reconciled with self. Grace means accepting the abandoned one. Grace transforms fate into a meaningful vocation. It transforms guilt to trust and courage. The word grace has something triumphant in it.

- Yrjo Kallinen



Remember, you can't steal second if you don't take your foot off first.

- Mike Todd



We rely upon the poets, the philosophers, and the playwrights to articulate what most of us can only feel, in joy and sorrow. They illuminate the thoughts for which we only grope; they give us the strength and balm we cannot find in ourselves. 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



Looking for and enjoying beauty is a way to nourish the soul. the universe is in the habit of making beauty. There are flowers and songs, snowflakes and smiles, acts of great courage, laughter between friends, a job well done, the smell of fresh-baked bread. Beauty is everywhere.

- Matthew Fox



And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

- Howard Zinn



If you believe that you can damage, then believe that you can fix.

- Rebbe Nachman of Breslov



The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor.

- Benjamin Franklin



Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation; what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause. Hope is what led me here today -- with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas; and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have courage to remake the world as it should be. [January 3, 2008]

- Barack Obama



The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

- Ralph W. Sockman



Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying "I will try again tomorrow."

- Mary Anne Radmacher



Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.

- Clare Boothe Luce



Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

- Baltasar Gracian



Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

- Winston Churchill



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



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



Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

- Winston Churchill



All serious daring starts from within.

- Harriet Beecher Stowe



Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him, cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln?

- Robert Coles



When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson



Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

- Aristotle



History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

- Maya Angelou



The best way out is always through.

- Robert Frost



Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.

- Margaret Chase Smith



We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.

- Helen Keller