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Fear

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“Twas grace that taught My heart to fear, And grace my fears reliev'd; How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believ'd!" And I want to feel sun on my face, And I feel a shadow in its place, With the sunlight shines through cloud, When we're standing free, proud.”
Mike Oldfield (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom — he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.”
E. B. White (1899–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home. No father and mother can hope to escape sorrow and anxiety, and there are dreadful moments when death comes very near those we love, even if for the time being it passes by. But life is a great adventure, and the worst of all fears is the fear of living.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I observe the physician, with the same diligence, as he the disease; I see he fears, and I fear with him...”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it: He that fears otherwise, gives advantage to the danger.”
Francis Quarles (1592–1644) first seen 1640 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the Enchiridion (1640) of Francis Quarles.
Also quoted by: Benjamin Disraeli (misattributed)
“They ask you, [O Muḥammad], about the crescent moons. Say, "They are measurements of time for the people and for ḥajj [pilgrimage]." And it is not righteousness to enter houses from the back, but righteousness is [in] one who fears Allāh. And enter houses from their doors. And fear Allāh that you may succeed.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If of their pleasures and desires no end be found; God to their cares and fears will set no bound. What would content you? Who can tell? Ye fear so much to lose what you have got As if ye liked it well. Ye strive for more, as if ye liked it not.”
Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) said by 1667 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears reliev'd; How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believ'd!”
John Newton (1725–1807) said by 1807 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Honor Harrington: The world's best swordsman doesn't fear the second best; he fears the worst swordsman, because he can't predict what the idiot will do. (paraphrase on Mark Twain)”
David Weber (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 376 (1927).
“Melancholy and despair, though often, do not always concur; there is much difference: melancholy fears without a cause, this upon great occasion; melancholy is caused by fear and grief, but this torment procures them and all extremity of bitterness.”
Robert Burton (1577–1640) said by 1640 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's a lot of laughter that goes on. Since we're laughing together, we're true community. It's a very safe place to confront your fears. The minute somebody says, "Perform!" your fear comes up...”
Martin de Maat (1949–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The pretext for indecisiveness is commonly mature deliberation; but in reality indecisive men occupy themselves less in deliberation than others; for to him who fears to decide, deliberation (which has a foretaste of that fear) soon becomes intolerably irksome, and the mind escapes from the anxiety of it into alien themes.”
Henry Taylor (1800–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.”
Italo Calvino (1923–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.”
John Basil Barnhill first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Indictment of Socialism (#3), transcript of Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism (1914)
“He has but one great fear that fears to do wrong.”
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 244.
“Do you know,” it says, “a zmora can tell the difference between dread and fear. A person fears what’s unknown, but they dread what’s known.”
Veronica Roth (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fear of the other makes us resemble the other who fears us.”
Jorge Majfud (born 1969) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cybors (2012)
“I have learned not only that the colors and the sounds of war are the same, but the fears of war are the same. You know, there is a fear of dying.”
Zainab Salbi (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fear when the friend fears you.”
Hossein Nuri (born 1954) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Illuminationist Depictions (2015) by Nadia Maftouni, p. 62
“I really didn't have any fear about the humiliation factor. That was something I was excited to get the opportunity to explore. My fears were about pulling it off.”
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (born 1984) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mary Elizabeth Winstead: from scream queen to alcoholic in Smashed" in The Guardian (29 November 2012)
“A member fears nowadays to express an honest opinion, in some locals, for fear of being hooted down or even losing a job.”
Rose Pesotta (1896–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He must fear God because when you get married to a man who fears and loves God, every other thing will fall into place. Everything boils down to God and if he loves God, then he can love me. He must be loving, caring, understanding, and patient and hard-working. I can’t marry an actor and I am currently in a relationship.”
Lisa Omorodion (born 1990) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lisa described her ideal manPunch (22nd May 2016)
“Ultimately, our art is a reflection of the progress of our desires chained to our fears. The meaning of a social movement is that it rises directly out of a gut need to defeat the ascendancy of fear. That need becomes an idea which takes hold slowly, and slowly forces emotional—hence cultural and political—change.”
Vivian Gornick (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact that they blindly follow orders to kill a person just because he doesn’t agree with the way our state works – that shows that Putin fears my father. And that my father is doing something right! I do fear for his life, but it also means: He is doing something right.”
Daria Navalnaya (born 2001) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you have overcome one temptation, you must be ready to enter the lists with another. As distrust, in some sense, is the mother of safety, so security is the gate of danger. A man had need to fear this most of all, that he fears not at all.”
Thomas Brooks (Puritan) (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we are to inspire men to father it also helps to stop reflexively condemning men as afraid of commitment and address what they are afraid of. –page246.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great success of this system is that it makes the general public afraid of taking responsibility, afraid of taking a position or giving a definite answer, or even of making mistakes.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The top Jews who operate the terror and tyranny machine can survive and manipulate us exactly as the lion tamer can manipulate a cageful of deadly lions and tigers because the animals are too stupid and afraid of the silly crack of his whip and his chair to see the situation as it is and use the enormous power they have but are afraid to use.”
George Lincoln Rockwell (1918–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I understand so very little. But I am not afraid to look: I am a good observer at last. My eyes are open, and I am not afraid.”
Robert Charles Wilson (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I didn't say I was afraid of dying, I answered, I said that I was afraid to get on a plane. There is a difference. (David to Dr. Singh)”
Paul Auster (1947–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am an Agnostic because I am not afraid to think. I am not afraid of any god in the universe who would send me or any other man or woman to hell. If there were such a being, he would not be a god; he would be a devil.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in a eulogy for Darrow by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1938)
“Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man. I'm not worried about my soul.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a debate with religious leaders in Kansas City, as quoted in a eulogy for Darrow by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1938)
“Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it; since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live.”
Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lot of people are afraid of heights; not me, I'm afraid of widths.”
Steven Wright (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid. Ain't nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid. A bear or a deer, too, has got to be scared of a coward the same as a brave man has got to be.”
William Faulkner (1897–1962) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Bear" in The Saturday Evening Post (May 9, 1942)
“I screamed aloud that I was not afraid; that I never could be afraid; and others screamed with me for solace. We swore to one another that the city was exactly the same, and still alive...”
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nyarlathotep" (1920)
“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first ... I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'" by Ian Sample, in The Guardian (15 May 2011)
“I am not so much afraid of death, as ashamed thereof; 'tis the very disgrace and ignominy of our natures, that in a moment can so disfigure us that our nearest friends, Wife, and Children stand afraid and start at us.”
Thomas Browne (1605–1682) said by 1682 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I haven't got much time to waste It's time to make my way I'm not afraid of what I'll face But I'm afraid to stay.”
Madonna (entertainer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.”
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She did not send for him until she was afraid; she was not afraid until he undid her work; he did not undo her work until he was past loving her.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3rd Public Talk, Berkeley, California (5 February 1969)
“The right hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election is he? Oh, if I were going to cut and run I'd have gone after the Falklands. Afraid? Frightened? Frit? Couldn't take it? Couldn't stand it? Right now inflation is lower than it has been for thirteen years, a record the right hon. Gentleman couldn't begin to touch!”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prime Minister's Questions (19 April 1983). The use of 'frit', an unusual Lincolnshire dialect abbreviation of 'frightened' which Mrs Thatcher evidently recalled from childhood, was missed by MPs in a noisy chamber but …
“I have a minus score (against Spassky). I lost 3 and drew 2. I was better than him when I lost those games. I pressed for the win. My overall tournament record is much better than his. I'm not afraid of him, he's afraid of me.”
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview prior to world championship match, 1972
“We are afraid of having and showing a small mind and we are not afraid of having and showing a small heart.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m not aware of it. I don’t pay much attention to his tweets. I’ll say this for ya: He’s been one of the best presidents I’ve served under. And the reasoning is, he’s not afraid to make decisions. He’s not afraid to take on the big mouths around here.”
Orrin Hatch (1934–2022) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Donald Trump after asked about a series of anti-Muslim videos that Trump had retweeted. As quoted in Shaq Didn’t Call Trump the 'Best President (September 17, 2018) by Catherine Monk,
“They were afraid of dying but even more afraid to show it.”
Tim O'Brien (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This I have seen in life—those who are overcautious about themselves fall into dangers at every step; those who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get only disgrace; and those who are always afraid of loss, always lose.”
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men will always say they love women as a group, but somehow seem to be less fond of them as individuals. Women, on the other hand, often appreciate the man they're with but almost never have anything nice to say about our sex as a group. [...] Women are afraid of men they don't know. Men are afraid of women they know very well.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source