Pericles on courage

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.

Nor is it any longer possible for you to give up this empire … Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

Aristotle384–322 BC

Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.

William Shakespeare1564–1616Julius Caesar (1599), Act II, scene ii.In context

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.