Courage isn’t the absence of fear it’s the strength to face it. Courage is the fire that keeps you moving forward. Throughout history, leaders, writers, and thinkers have spoken about courage in ways that still resonate deeply today. Here are 40 unforgettable quotes on courage that will inspire strength, boldness, and resilience in your life.
1. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”
– Nelson Mandela
2. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill
3. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
4. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings
5. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”
– Steve Jobs
6. “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”
– Susan Jeffers
7. “Courage is grace under pressure.”
– Ernest Hemingway
8. “Fortune favors the bold.”
– Latin Proverb
9. “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”
– Brené Brown
10. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
– Muhammad Ali
11. “It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol.”
– Brené Brown
12. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”
– Mary Anne Radmacher
13. “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”
– Paulo Coelho
14. “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
– Vincent van Gogh
15. “You can choose courage, or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both.”
– Brené Brown
16. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
17. “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
– Mark Twain
18. “One man with courage is a majority.”
– Thomas Jefferson
19. “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.”
– Søren Kierkegaard
20. “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
– Albert Camus
21. “Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.”
– Brené Brown
22. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”
– Mark Twain
23. “Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.”
– Grace Hansen
24. “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”
– Winston Churchill
25. “The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.”
– Robert Green Ingersoll
26. “Be bold, be brave enough to be your true self.”
– Queen Latifah
27. “It’s okay to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.”
– Unknown
28. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
– Anaïs Nin
29. “Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.”
– Emma Donoghue
30. “Courage is being yourself every day in a world that tells you to be someone else.”
– Unknown
31. “It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
32. “You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.”
– Mary Tyler Moore
33. “Loving deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.”
– Anne-Sophie Swetchine
34. “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
35. “Leap, and the net will appear.”
– John Burroughs
36. “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.”
– Dorothea Brande
37. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
– Arthur Ashe
38. “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
– Napoleon Hill
39. “Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking.”
– J.C. Watts
40. “The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.”
– Meg Cabot, Princess Diaries
Courage is the spark behind every breakthrough, the fuel behind every dream, and the anchor in every storm. These quotes remind us that courage isn’t just about heroism it’s about showing up, staying true to yourself, and choosing faith over fear in everyday moments.
