Quotes about courage
191 quotes from 139 people
The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.
There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.
W. E. B. Du Bois1868–1963The Study of the Negro Problems, paragraph 51, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. XI (January 1898)Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating, and now I have a taste for it.
Richard Stallmanborn 1953Thus Spake Stallman (2000)Among the Americans serving on Iwo island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.
Chester W. Nimitz1885–1966Statement after the Battle of Iwo Jima (c. March—May 1945); “UNCOMMON VALOR WAS A COMMON VIRTUE” has been inscribed on the USMC War Memorial.Civil courage, in fact, can grow only out of the free responsibility of free men.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer1906–1945“After Ten Years” (Christmas 1942), in Letters and Papers from PrisonBut man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961The Old Man and the Sea (1952)Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.
Edward Abbey1927–1989Desert Solitaire (1968), “Water”, p. 113I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent — General Tubman as we call her.
John Brown1800–1859As recalled by Wendell Phillips (letter of 16 June 1868), in Sarah H. Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869)
Al Goreborn 1948Speech at the Democratic National Convention (28 August 1996).
Andrew Jackson1767–1845To troops who had abandoned their lines during the Battle of New Orleans (8 January 1815).
Charles de Gaulle1890–1970Speech, July 14 1943.
Robert Falcon Scott1868–1912“Message to the Public” (March 1912), in Scott’s Last Expedition (1913), vol. 1
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914What I Saw At Shiloh (1881), V
Napoleon1769–1821Napoleon: In His Own Words (1916)
Jane Addams1860–1935Peace and Bread in Time of War (1922), Chapter 7: Personal Reactions During War
