Quotes About Courage: Finding Bravery & Boldness​

By Kelsey Schultz, Ph.D. Candidate

Are your fears holding you back? Keep reading for some inspiring quotes about courage to give you the boost you need.

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Courage is an essential element of a life well lived. Courage allows us to explore new opportunities, confront and accept our realities, and adapt to change. We need courage to find our own voices in the din of the opinions of others and to truly understand who we are and what we want from our time on earth.​

Though it may be easy to appreciate the value of courage, it can be exceptionally 

challenging to actually find it. This challenge is part of the nature of courage. That is, no one can be courageous without first being afraid. So, if your fears are holding you back, just remember that fear is the foundation of courage. And if you need a little extra inspiration to help you reconnect with your bravery, these quotes about courage might just be exactly the boost you need.

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Quotes About Having Courage

• "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." — John Wayne
• “To have courage for whatever comes in life—everything lies in that.” — Saint Teresa of Ávila
• “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs
• "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." — Nelson Mandela
• “Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it by use.” — Ruth Gordon
• “Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.” — Arthur Koestler
• “You must always remember this: Have courage and be kind. You have more kindness in your little finger than most people possess in their whole body. And it has power. More than you know.” — Brittany Candau
• "You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give." — Eleanor Roosevelt
• "It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless." — Giacomo Casanova

Quotes About Moral Courage​

• "Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage." — Maya Angelou
  
• "There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me." — Jane Austen
  
• “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” — Winston Churchill 
  
• "Because no matter what they say, you always have a choice. You just don't always have the guts to make it." — Ray N. Kuili
  
• "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
  
• "Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it's what you believe, and the heck with everybody." ― Justin Cronin
  
• “Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.” — Wendell Phillips
  
• “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
  

Quotes About Finding Courage

• “Courage is found in unlikely places.” — J. R. R. Tolkien
• “If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” — John Irving
• "Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing." ― August Wilson
• “Believe you can and you're halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt

Quotes About Courage and Bravery

• "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 lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'" — Eleanor Roosevelt
  
• “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” — William Faulkner
  
• "You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don't have to have it all figured out to move forward." — Roy T. Bennett
  
• "No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens." — Veronica Roth
  
• “And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.” — Paulo Coelho
  
• “If you want to change things, it requires bravery.” — Naftali Bennett
  
• "It's your life; you don't need someone's permission to live the life you want. Be brave to live from your heart." — Roy T. Bennett
  
• “Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.” — Franklin P. Jones
  
• “A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.” — Veronica Roth
  
• “I’m not funny. What I am is brave.” — Lucille Ball
  

Quotes About Courage in the Face of Adversity

• "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." ― Winston Churchill
• "We don't develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity." ― Barbara De Angelis
• "Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave." ― Mary Tyler Moore
• "Courage isn't having the strength to go on—it is going on when you don't have strength." ― Napoleon Bonaparte
• "Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and perceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and last some crisis shows what we have become." ― Brooke Foss Westcott
• "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." ― Mary Anne Radmacher
• “I would define true courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.” — William Tecumseh Sherman

Quotes About Courage by Famous Authors​

• "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." — Victor Hugo
• "Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality." — C.S. Lewis
• “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E. E. Cummings
• “Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies but just as much to stand up to our friends.” — J. K. Rowling
• “Courage is grace under pressure.” — Ernest Hemingway
• “Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and personal values. Without courage our love pales into mere dependency. Without courage our fidelity becomes conformism.” — Rollo May
• "Have the courage to act instead of react." — Oliver Wendell Holmes

Quotes About Courage and Boldness

• "Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear. Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at you to fight or flee—and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do." — Jim Butcher
  
• "Courage to me is doing something daring, no matter how afraid, insecure, intimidated, alone, unworthy, incapable, ridiculed or whatever other paralyzing emotion you might feel. Courage is taking action. . . . no matter what. So you're afraid? Be afraid. Be scared silly to the point you're trembling and nauseous, but do it anyway!" — Richelle E. Goodrich
  
• “The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” — Oprah Winfrey
  
• “Courage results when one’s convictions are bigger than one’s fears.” — Orrin Woodward
  
• “Because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained.” — John Stuart Mill
  

• “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” — Muhammad Ali
  

Quotes About the Courage to Begin

• “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” — Stephen King
• “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
• "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
• "Courage doesn't happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life." — Shannon L. Alder
• Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

• "All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination." — Earl Nightingale
• “Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.” — Ray Bradbury
• “A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.” — John A. Shedd

Quotes About Courage and Creativity

• “Creativity takes courage.” — Henri Matisse
• "Everyone has talent. What's rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads." — Erica Jong
• "He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch." — Jean-Luc Godard
• “A great deal of talent is lost in this world for the want of a little courage.” — Sidney Smith
• “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent van Gogh
• "The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness." — Christopher Morley
• "Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." — Erich Fromm

Quotes About Emotional Courage

• "Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness." ― Brené Brown
• "Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time." ― Maya Angelou
• “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” — Brené Brown
• “From caring comes courage.” — Lao Tzu
• “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” — Erma Bombeck
• "To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength." — Criss Jami
• "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." — Lao Tzu
• “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” — Brené Brown

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• ​Quotes for Enjoying Life: Short, Funny, & Relaxing Quotes​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Books Related to Quotes About Courage

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

• A Book of Courage: 101 Quotes for Cultivating a Courageous Mindset
• 365 Stoic Quotes: Daily stoic meditations on virtue, self-control, discipline, wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation
• A Year of Positive Thinking: Daily Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage (A Year of Daily Reflections)

Final Thoughts on Quotes About Courage​

Courage is essential for a life well lived, but it can sometimes feel like it is in short supply. These inspiring quotes about courage can serve as a helpful reminder that you have what it takes to face your fears and live life to the fullest. For more quotes about courage, check out this video:

Video: Top 100 Courage Quotes​

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