Quotes about courage

25 genuine quotes about courage, by Rowling, Angelou and Seneca, from works including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and On Providence. Among the speakers: Albus Dumbledore, Screwtape and the Lorax. Some are a character speaking, not the author: each entry says who speaks, and to whom. 13 more quotes on courage circulate under these names but are not their words as shared; they are listed at the end.

  1. It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

    André Gide, If It Die… (1926), Draft preface for Si le grain ne meurt (“Projet de préface”), first printed after the memoir in Œuvres complètes, vol. X (1936), pp. 453–454.

  2. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.

    Mark Twain, 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.

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

    Mahatma Gandhi, Articles in Indian Opinion, Young India and Harijan (1920), ‘The Doctrine of the Sword’, Young India, 11 August 1920 (Young India 1919–1922, Madras: S. Ganesan, 1924, p. 260).

  4. Refusing to lie about what one knows, and resisting oppression.

    Albert Camus, Albert Camus, speech at the Nobel Banquet, Stockholm City Hall, 10 December 1957; French text published by NobelPrize.org (copyright Éditions Gallimard), Nobel Banquet speech, Stockholm, 10 December 1957; paragraph on the two commitments of the writer’s craft.

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

    C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942), letter XXIX, p. 148 in the 1944 printing, said by Screwtape.

  6. I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.

    Dr. Seuss, The Lorax (1971), The Lorax introduces himself to the Once-ler after the first Truffula tree is cut down (unpaginated picture book), said by the Lorax.

  7. Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series (1841), Essay II, “Self-Reliance”.

  8. It is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are.

    Epictetus, Discourses (108), Book 1, chapter 24, section 1 (opening sentence); George Long translation, Book I, XXIV, ‘How We Should Struggle with Circumstances’.

  9. Books! And cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery and – oh Harry – be careful!

    J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), Chapter 16 (Through the Trapdoor), said by Hermione Granger.

  10. 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, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), Chapter 17 (“The Man with Two Faces”), p. 221 (Bloomsbury, 2004 edition), said by Albus Dumbledore.

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  1. To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.

    J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), Chapter 17 (“The Man with Two Faces”), p. 215 (Bloomsbury, 2004 edition), said by Albus Dumbledore.

  2. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

    J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination, Harvard University commencement address, 5 June 2008; text published by the Harvard Gazette, Harvard commencement address, 5 June 2008, paragraph beginning You might never fail on the scale I did.

  3. Human life lay crushed beneath the weight of religion, until a Greek man dared to rise against it.

    Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book I, lines 62–67; Leonard, Book I, “Praise of Epicurus”.

  4. 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.

    Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love (1963), Chapter III, On Being a Good Neighbor; passage on dangerous altruism.

  5. You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

    Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise (1978), ‘Still I Rise’, first stanza, lines 3–4, said by a defiant Black lyric speaker addressing those who would humiliate her.

  6. Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.

    Maya Angelou, Maya Angelou, “America’s Renaissance Woman,” Academy of Achievement, published interview transcript, headed High Point, North Carolina, January 22, 1997, Academy of Achievement interview, opening answer about Martin Luther King Jr..

  7. History, despite its wrenching pain Cannot be unlived, but if faced With courage, need not be lived again.

    Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of Morning (1993), ‘On the Pulse of Morning’, the three lines beginning ‘History, despite its wrenching pain’, said by the poem’s personified Rock.

  8. We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.

    Maya Angelou, Marianne Schnall, “Conversation with Maya Angelou,” Feminist.com, interview dated 12/10/08, Interview with Marianne Schnall, answer about discovering who we are through setbacks.

  9. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

    Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), Prologue, section 4 (Zarathustra’s Prologue, Zarathustras Vorrede), said by Zarathustra.

  10. Everything is worthwhile if the soul is not small.

    Fernando Pessoa, Message (1934), Second part, Mar Portuguez; poem X, “Mar Portuguez”, second stanza, lines 7–10 (1934 edition, p. 64).

  11. Fire tries gold, misfortune tries brave men.

    Seneca the Younger, On Providence (64), Chapter 5, section 9 (De Providentia 5.9).

  12. He who fears death will never act as becomes a living man.

    Seneca the Younger, On Tranquillity of Mind (60), Chapter 11, section 6 (De Tranquillitate Animi 11.6).

  13. It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.

    Seneca the Younger, On Providence (64), Chapter 2, section 4 (De Providentia 2.4).

  14. Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.

    Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs, 1994 interview with the Silicon Valley Historical Association, excerpted in Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in His Own Words, edited by Leslie Berlin (Steve Jobs Archive, 2023), “One More Thing …”, “One More Thing …”, the closing selection in Make Something Wonderful (2023), credited to Steve, 1994.

  15. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

    Steve Jobs, Commencement address at Stanford University (2005), Third story, about death, paragraph beginning “Your time is limited”.

Check a quote about courage

Shared under these names, but not theirs as shared

  1. You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth.

    Misattributed. Credited to William W. Purkey. Susanna Clark and Richard Leigh wrote it, not Purkey.

  2. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

    Misattributed. Credited to Mark Twain. It is first printed in H. Jackson Brown Jr.’s P.S. I Love You (1990), a book of sayings he credited to his mother; whether she coined it is not known. It is not Twain’s.

  3. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

    Misattributed. Credited to Ralph Waldo Emerson. An unknown writer rewording E. E. Cummings wrote it, not Emerson.

  4. So live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts

    Misattributed. Credited to Marcus Tullius Cicero. Horace wrote it, not Cicero.

  5. Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

    Misattributed. Credited to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Emerson attribution is unsupported. The saying adapts a line published by Muriel Strode in 1903; the person who made the modern imperative is unidentified.

  6. The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

    Misattributed. Credited to Epictetus. Charles de Saint-Évremond (the credit attached to the early-modern essay) wrote it, not Epictetus.

  7. The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

    Misattributed. Credited to Epicurus. No. The two sentences come from an English essay ‘In Vindication of Epicurus’, credited to Saint-Évremond, in the book Epicurus’s Morals (1712); a 1766 anthology cited that book as ‘Epic. mor.’, and later collections signed it Epicurus.

  8. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

    Paraphrase. Credited to André Gide. The idea is in The Counterfeiters (1925), Troisième partie, chapter XIV (Édouard talking to Bernard), Les Faux-monnayeurs (1925), p. 147 of the NRF edition read.

  9. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

    Misattributed. Credited to Mark Twain. The earliest known form is Arthur G. Lewis’s, in a railway magazine column of 1911, and it spread as an anonymous proverb. It is not Twain’s.

  10. The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

    Misattributed. Credited to Friedrich Nietzsche. Rudyard Kipling wrote it, not Nietzsche.

  11. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

    Paraphrase. Credited to Henry David Thoreau. The idea is in Walden (1854), Chapter 18, “Conclusion”.

  12. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

    Not found. Credited to Martin Luther King Jr.. The exact wording is unverified, not proved fake. Its evidence comes from Marian Wright Edelman’s posthumous recollections of King, first located by Quote Investigator in 1986, rather than a contemporary King text or recording.

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

    Not found. Credited to Martin Luther King Jr.. This exact wording has not been authenticated as King’s. Clinton credited it to him in a speech on 30 April 2000, and it resembles King’s documented arguments about moral courage, but resemblance does not establish the words.

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