Aristotle: “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”

Confucius: “Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.”

Plutarch: “Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.”

Horace: “It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.”

William Shakespeare: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”

G.K. Chesterton: “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. … The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.”

Mark Twain: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

C.S. Lewis: “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

Charles Lindbergh: “Is he alone who has courage on his right hand and faith on his left hand?”

Louis D. Brandeis: “Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.”

Chester W. Nimitz: “God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.”

Eddie Rickenbacker: “Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.”

Winston Churchill: “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, ‘it is the quality which guarantees all others.'”

Harry Truman: “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

John Wayne: “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.”

Billy Graham: “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”

Ronald Reagan: “There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.”