Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.
Genuine
Yes. In The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), Chapter XII (“The Shame of Judge Driscoll”), epigraph from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar, said by Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar. These are the character’s words, not a statement in Twain’s own voice.
Found word for word by program in the full text.
- Work
- The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894
- Where
- Chapter XII (“The Shame of Judge Driscoll”), epigraph from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
- Found at
- Paragraph 489 of the text
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
The Shame of Judge Driscoll.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.1 Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word. Consider the flea!—incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage. […]
Judge Driscoll was in bed and asleep by ten o’clock on Friday night, and he was up and gone a-fishing before daylight in the morning with his friend Pembroke Howard. […]
If Judge Driscoll was the recognized first citizen of Dawson’s Landing, Pembroke Howard was easily its recognized second citizen. He was called “the great lawyer”—an earned title. […]
The scene
Every chapter of the novel opens with one or two entries from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar, the ‘whimsical almanac’ with ‘a little dab of ostensible philosophy, usually in ironical form’ that David Wilson keeps for his own amusement; when Judge Driscoll reads some of them to the leading citizens of Dawson’s Landing, they take them ‘in the solidest earnest’ as proof that Wilson is a fool (chapter V). This entry heads the chapter in which Judge Driscoll learns that his nephew Tom, kicked in public by the Italian twin Luigi, took him to court instead of challenging him to a duel. The Judge calls him a coward, tears up his will and has Luigi challenged himself. The entry goes on to the flea, ‘incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage’.
What it means
Being brave does not mean feeling no fear but feeling it and mastering it. A creature that knows no fear is not brave, only ignorant of danger.
Also shared as
- ShortenedCourage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it. A common recasting. Kindred lines credited to others (‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear’) are separate sayings.
Topics
Related quotes
- Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
- Put all your eggs in one basket—and watch that basket.
- If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
- Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. C. S. Lewis
- History, despite its wrenching pain Cannot be unlived, but if faced With courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou
Sources
Cite it
Mark Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), Chapter XII (“The Shame of Judge Driscoll”), epigraph from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar. Spoken by Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/courage-is-resistance-to-fear/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
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