Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury on courage

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance.

All Politeness is owing to Liberty. We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision. To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a Rust upon Mens Understandings.

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.