Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
~ Harper Lee
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Courage
Quiet voice
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
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Speak
All I insist on, and nothing else, is that you should show the whole world that you are not afraid. Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.
~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Shame
While you can still avoid shame by hiding, you won’t find happiness or even stability that way. The thing is, shame is a choice. It’s worth repeating: Shame can’t be forced on you; it must be accepted. The artist, then, combines courage with a fierce willingness to refuse to accept shame. Blame, sure. Shame, never. Where is the shame in using our best intent to make art for those we care about?
~ Seth Godin
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Seen in the light
To him that waits all things reveal themselves, provided that he has the courage not to deny, in the darkness, what he has seen in the light.
~ Coventry Patmore
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Age-old struggle
The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle—the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.
~ Douglas MacArthur
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Fleeing
A coward flees backward, away from new things. A man of courage flees forward, in the midst of new things.
~ Jacques Maritain
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True bravery
The bravery founded on hope of recompense, fear of punishment, experience of success, on rage, or on ignorance of danger, is but common bravery, and does not deserve the name. True bravery proposes a just end; measures the dangers, and meets the result with calmness and unyielding decision.
~ Francois de la Noue
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Love
Begin deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
~ Lao Tzu
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Talent and courage
A great deal of talent is lost in this world for the want of a little courage.
~ Sydney Smith
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Courage
Physical courage which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way, and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another. The former would seem most necessary for the camp; the latter for the council. But to constitute a great man both are necessary.
~ Charles Caleb Colton
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Courage
Courage exists, not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing and conquering it.
~ Jean Paul
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And in the end
It’s great to live a life of courage and compassion… but all the courage and compassion in the world doesn’t make any of it any easier. All it can do is hopefully make it more meaningful, somehow.
~ Hugh MacLeod from, https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2022/07/12/the-one-choice-all-fulfilled-people-make/
I’d go further: The more courage and compassion I muster, the harder it gets. Compassion gives me a big “why” that burns inside, driving me to the next, harder challenge. Courage begets more courage; With each win won through courage, it becomes easier to again deploy courage intentionally. It seems that courage and compassion lead to the tackling of increasing great and difficult challenges. Meaning is great, but I haven’t yet figured out how to use any of it to pay the proverbial rent.
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Truth
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
~ Frederick Douglass
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Inaction
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
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Courage, part 3
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
~ Erica Jong
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Carving
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
~ Kahlil Gibran
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Heart
Before you embark on any path ask the question, does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it and then you must choose another path. The trouble is that nobody asks the question. And when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart the path is ready to kill him.
~ Carlos Castaneda
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Courage, part 2
Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.
~ Amelia Earhart
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Courage, part 1
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
~ Anais Nin
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