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Courage

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“Sometimes my courage fails me and I think I ought to stop working, live in the country and devote myself to gardening. But I am held by a thousand bonds, and I don't know when I shall be able to arrange things otherwise. Nor do I know whether, even by writing scientific books, I could live without the laboratory.”
Marie Curie (1867–1934) said by 1934 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Today in science history(September 19, 2026)
“You, Socrates, began by saying that virtue can't be taught, and now you are insisting on the opposite, trying to show that all things are knowledge, justice, soundness of mind, even courage, from which it would follow that virtue most certainly can be taught.”
Protagoras (490–420 BC) said by 420 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Plato, Protagoras, sec. 361a–b. Translated by C. C. W. Taylor, Plato: 'Protagoras' (Oxford, 1976) p. 56
“This is the time not just for this Government–or, indeed, for this Prime Minister—but for this House to give a lead: to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right; to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk; to show, at the moment of decision, that we have the courage to do the right thing.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conclusion of speech in the House of Commons debate on Iraq (18 March 2003).
“We are the world’s Pariah not because we do not have the courage to resist, but rather because out entire national energy is wasted in eternal and unproductive squabbling between the right and the left.”
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is only one Art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth. … Thus, from the standpoint of the work and its worth it is irrelevant to which political ideas the artist as a citizen claims allegiance, which ideas he would like to serve with his work or whether he holds any such ideas at all.”
Václav Havel (1936–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“President's power does not extend to threatening or shutting down social media platforms. But we should fear this in every country. Worst case scenario is that platforms don't have courage to tell Trump to go away, that they begin to adapt policies to his whims because he is a lunatic,”
Jimmy Wales (born 1966) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Donald Trump is a lunatic: Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales interview with India Times on May 28, 2020
“It does not matter how 'courageous' a writer may be. Courage becomes useless, for a courageous writer who is not published is not a writer at all.”
Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Meyer Weisgal, 5 March 1947, as quoted in American Cassandra: The Life of Dorothy Thompson (1990) by Peter Kurth.
“On behalf of the British people I salute the skill and courage which have brought man to the moon. May this endeavour increase the knowledge and well-being of mankind.”
Elizabeth II (1926–2022) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message left on the moon by the crew of Apollo 11; NASA documentation (13 July 1969)
“Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. … The trouble is you won't fight. You've given up. But there's something just as inevitable as death. And that's life. Think of the power of the universe — turning the Earth, growing the trees. That's the same power within you — if you'll only have the courage and the will to use it.”
Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Calvero's answer to Terry's question: "What is there to fight for?" in Limelight (1952)
“Citizens, imagination usually sets the limits of the possible and the impossible; but when you have the will to do good, you must have the courage to cross these limits.”
Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 13 August 1793, Presenting his education plan to the National Convention
“'Wealth,' they said, 'is a false measure. Honour cannot be hoarded. Integrity cannot adorn a room. There is no courage in gold. Only fools build a fortress of wealth. Only fools would live in it and imagine themselves safe.'”
Steven Erikson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 the courage to remake the world as it should be.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Iowa Caucus Victory Speech, Delivered at the Iowa Democratic caucus on 3 January 2008
“Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With courage and purpose, with humility and with hope, with faith in the promise of tomorrow, let us march straightforward together, enduring allies in the cause of a world that is more peaceful, more prosperous, and more just.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And we’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and do more to encourage fatherhood — because what makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can continue down our current path, in which the gears of this great democracy grind to a halt and our children accept a life of lower expectations; where politics is a zero-sum game where a few do very well while struggling families of every race fight over a shrinking economic pie -- that’s one path. Or we can have the courage to change.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And if there is one thing that he and this year’s anniversary should teach us, if there’s one lesson I hope that Malia and Sasha and young people everywhere learn from this day, it’s that with enough effort, and enough empathy, and enough perseverance, and enough courage, people who love their country can change it.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by the President at LBJ Presidential Library Civil Rights Summit at Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas on April 10, 2014.
“And that’s the question we all must answer -- what kind of Europe, what kind of America, what kind of world will we leave behind. And I believe that if we hold firm to our principles, and are willing to back our beliefs with courage and resolve, then hope will ultimately overcome fear, and freedom will continue to triumph over tyranny -- because that is what forever stirs in the human heart.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This weekend, our hearts are with the people of San Bernardino — another American community shattered by unspeakable violence. We salute the first responders — the police, the SWAT teams, the EMTs — who responded so quickly, with such courage, and saved lives. We pray for the injured as they fight to recover from their wounds.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Great Spirit made all things. He gave the white people a home beyond the great waters. He supplied these grounds with game, and gave them to his red children; and he gave them strength and courage to defend them.”
Tecumseh (1768–1813) said by 1813 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who want to burn books are either afraid of the ideas contained within the covers or they haven't the courage to stand up for the views which they themselves profess to hold.”
Tommy Douglas (1904–1986) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech, Saskatchewan Legislature, February 17, 1954.
“Under John Kennedy's leadership, this Nation has demonstrated that it has the courage to seek peace, and it has the fortitude to risk war. We have proved that we are a good and reliable friend to those who seek peace and freedom. We have shown that we can also be a formidable foe to those who reject the path of peace and those who seek to impose upon us or our allies the yoke of tyranny.”
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my view, only those who have had the courage to work through Lacan's anti-philosophy without faltering deserve to be called 'contemporary philosophers'.”
Alain Badiou (born 1937) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Vérité: forçage et innomable, translated as Truth: Forcing and the Unnameable in Theoretical Writings. London: Continuum, 2004. .
“In other periods of depression it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground for hope — nothing of man. But there is still religion, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That continues as a solid basis for hope and courage.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversation with Charles Andrews (1 January 1933), quoted in Coolidge: An American Enigma (2000).
“With faith and hope and courage we hold our heads erect and with dauntless spirit marshal the working class for the march from Capitalism to Socialism, from Slavery to Freedom, from Barbarism to Civilization.”
Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) said by 1926 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ireland, Ireland! That cloud in the west! That coming storm! That minister of God's retribution upon cruel, inveterate, and but half-atoned injustice! Ireland forces upon us those great social and great religious questions—God grant that we may have courage to look them in the face, and to work through them.”
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his wife, Catherine Gladstone (12 October 1845), quoted in John Morley, The Life of Wiliam Ewart Gladstone, Volume I (1903), p. 383
“I name next a word that it requires some courage to utter these days—the word of economy. It is like a echo from the distant period of my early life. The wealth of the country, and the vast comparative diffusion of comfort, has, I am afraid, put public economy, at least in its more rigid and severe forms, sadly out of countenance.”
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Liberal Federation in Newcastle (2 October 1891), quoted in A. W. Hutton and H. J. Cohen (eds.), The Speeches of The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone on Home Rule, Criminal Law, Welsh and Irish National…
“Injustice makes the rules, and courage breaks them.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We believe that it is not enough to fight against the things that we oppose—we must fight with equal courage and equal dedication for the things that we believe in.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, April 5, 1956, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 131 thumb|The American Dream is not about gadgets. It…
“One of the most influential books to appear in the early seventies was a book assembled by eleven women in the Boston Women's Health Book Collective called Our Bodies, Ourselves...They quoted the English suffragette Christabel Pankhurst: “Remember the dignity/of your womanhood./Do not appeal,/do not beg,/do not grovel./Take courage/join hands,/stand beside us./Fight with us…”
Howard Zinn (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.”
Mason Cooley (1927–2002) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: City Aphorisms (1984)
“I never saw love as luck, as that gift from the gods which put everything else in place, and allowed you to succeed. No, I saw love as reward. One could find it only after one's virtue, or one's courage, or self-sacrifice, or generosity, or loss, has succeeded in stirring the power of creation.”
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harry Hubbard, in Harlot's Ghost : A Novel (1991)
“All too often men with physical courage are disappointing in their moral imagination.”
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Comfortless was my religion, anxiety of the anxieties, for I believed God was not love, but courage. Love came only as a reward.”
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away.”
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember that you are never alone, Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives! He has called you and chosen you to live in the freedom of the children of God. Turn to him in prayer and in love. Ask him to grant you the courage and strength to live in this freedom always. Walk with him who is "the Way, the Truth and the Life"!”
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Baptismal Vigik with Young Peeple, Address of John Paul II at Longchamp Racecourse on 23 August 1997 during Apostolic Journey of His Holiness John Paul II to Paris on the Occasion of the 12th World Youth Day (August 21-…
“Creativity comes from the freedom to fail. And freedom to fail comes from experimentation, and that's what gives something its individuality. And, you know, I think her courage, which is the positive way of interpreting it, or bloody-mindedness, which is the negative, is part of what gives her real value as an artist.”
Peter Gabriel (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The advice I would give is: If you have the courage to do so, don't feel patriotic in monetary matters. Choose the money which helps you best.”
Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Silver & Gold Report, Vol. V, No. 20, (Late October 1980)
“Courage is standing up for what you believe in. There are so many people who aren't willing to stand up. You've got to fight.”
Howard Stern (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God grant me serenity to accept the code I cannot change, courage to change the code I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Erik Naggum (1965–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hope and optimism are irrepressible but there is a deep underlying premonition that the opposition to change is likely to be vicious. Often the anxious question is asked: will such an oppressive regime really give us democracy? And the answer has to be: democracy, like liberty, justice and other social and political rights, is not 'given', it is earned through courage, resolution and sacrifice.”
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“See yourself as you really are. Listen to what none of your leaders and representatives dares tell you: You are a "little, common man." Understand the double meaning of these words: "little" and "common." Don't run. Have the courage to look at yourself!”
Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.”
James Callaghan (1912–2005) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Harvard Business Review (1 November 1986)
“I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity and her flaming self-respect. And it's these things I’d believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn’t all she should be. But of course the real reason, Isabelle, is that I love her and that’s the beginning and end of everything. You’re still a Catholic, but Zelda’s the only God I have left now.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Isabelle Amorous (February 1920)
“My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his daughter Frances Scott Fitzgerald (July 1938)
“Through the Spirit's action may the young people gathered here have the courage to become saints! This is what the world needs more than anything else.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Government House Ceremony (16 July 2008)
“To be truly alive is to be transformed from within, open to the energy of God's love. In accepting the power of the Holy Spirit you can also transform your families, communities and nations. Set free the gifts! Let wisdom, courage, awe and reverence be the marks of greatness!”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity.”
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the Knights of Columbus Council 969 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (January 2005).
“We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion — a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair, or even a quivering portion of hysteria. Opinions can be picked up cheap in the market place while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source