Courage

Here I stand; I can do no other.

The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. Malcolm X

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love"

I have reached a point in my life where I understand the pain and the challenges; and my attitude is one of standing up with open arms to meet them all.

The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage they did not know they had.

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.

The same lesson keeps presenting itself to me. As soon as I rebound, I will be presented with the same lesson.

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

"The world will be saved by the western woman."

In their voices they found themselves.

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

When I dare to be powerful -- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

There is no way to re-enchant our lives in a disenchanted culture except by becoming renegades from that culture and planting the seeds for a new one.

There is no way to re-enchant our lives in a disenchanted culture except by becoming renegades from that culture and planting the seeds for a new one.

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

from Rev. Christopher Chenoweth: "I have said, many times, there are two types of people in this world, vacuums and sprinklers." from -Tirukkural - "What is virtuous conduct? It is never destroying life, for killing leads to every other sin. Of all virtues summed by ancient sages, the foremost are to share one's food and to protect all living creatures." from Swami Vivekananda - "Whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse must vanish. For, after all, it is but a dream. Mountain high though the difficulties appear... they are but maya. Fear not - it is banished. Crush it and it vanishes... Go forward. Assert yourself again and again and light must come." from Plato – "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. " from Jimi Hendrix – “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

It’s in the courage writ small, repeated ten thousand times that we create ourselves.

At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion.

A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.

Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for.

When once you have taken the impossible into your calculations, it's possibilities become practically limitless!

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

I do not say think as I think, but think in my way. Fear no shadows, least of all in that great spectre of personal unhappiness which binds half the world to orthodoxy.

On the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory, sat down to rest - and there resting, died.

You can't always change the feelings you're having but you can always change your thinking.

My hope is that a religious consciousness will begin to rise, one based on enhancing humanity, grasping life in all of its complex wonder, having the courage to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that each of us can be and that it will express itself in our national life in more earth centered, justice enhancing and humane ways.

At the bottom of not a little of the bravery that appears in the world, there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they have not the courage to face public opinion.

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?

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

I will never forget that the only reason I'm standing here today is because somebody, somewhere stood up for me when it was risky. Stood up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn't popular. And because that somebody stood up, a few more stood up. And then a few thousand stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

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.

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

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.

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.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.

We need people who will dare to risk anything and everything to see things different.

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.

Heart, be brave. If you cannot be brave, just go. Love's glory is not a small thing.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

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 have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of men, as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

In times of universal deceit, truth-telling becomes a revolutionary act.

It is not the "courage to be" that we must develop as much as the "courage to become." We are responsible for our destiny. The meaning of life is not located in some hidden crevice in the womb of nature but is created by free persons, who are aware that they are responsible for their own futures and have the courage to take this project into their own hands.

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

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly, who know the great enthusiams, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who, at the best, know the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

It is better to fail at doing something, than to succeed in doing nothing.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

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.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative (and creation). There is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

Lying is done with words and also with silence.

Courage is resistence to fear -mastery of fear,
not absence of fear.

Try not.  Do... or do not. There is no try.
--Yoda

Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others. (--in a letter to her husband, before her last flight)

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

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.

Hope has two beautiful daughters-their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

From the cowardice that dare not face new truth,
From the laziness that is contented with half truth,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
Good Lord, deliver us.

To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.

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.

Courage can't see around corners, but goes around them anyway.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. 

A garden was the primitive prison till man with Promethean felicity and boldness luckily sinned himself out of it.

No man can fight his way to the top and stay at the top without exercising the fullest measure of grit, courage, determination, resolution. Every man who gets anywhere does so because he has first firmly resolved to progress in the world and then has enough stick-to-it-tiveness to transform his resolution into reality. Without resolution, no man can win any worthwhile place among his fellow men.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are to some extent a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece by thought, choice, courage and determination

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.