Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.

To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. To just give. That takes courage, because we don't want to fall on our faces or leave ourselves open to hurt.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

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

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgement on each of us, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage… Second, were we truly men of judgement… Third, were we truly men of integrity… Finally were we truly men of dedication? Speech to Massacchussetts State Legislature (9 January 1961)

Can any man be courageous who has the fear of death in him?

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. Letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position (March 19, 1940).

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

Happy are those who dare courageously to defend what they love.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of oneself.

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.

Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Self-confidant people aren't afraid to have their views challenged. They relish the intellectual combat that enriches ideas.

I like it, murder, because this is courage. It is anti-bourgeois. Murder is closer to heaven, because after becoming remords of conscience, one prays, one opens the sky, and the angels say, "Good morning!" From an interview originally conducted by Victor Bockris in 1974.

In attack most daring, in defence most cunning, in endurance most steadfast, they performed a feat of arms which will be remembered and recounted as long as the virtues of courage and resolution have power to move the hearts of men. On the First Airborne Division at Arnhem.

There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.

When I came to New York it was the first time I'd ever taken a plane, the first time I'd ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with 35 dollars in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done.

Courage conquers all things: it even gives strength to the body.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.