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Quotes about fear

124 quotes from 100 people

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All is in a man’s hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that’s an axiom. It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Crime and Punishment (1866)In context
- Courage
He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.
Leonardo da Vinci1452–1519XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
- Money
Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
Bertolt Brecht1898–1956The Mother (1930)
- Life & Death
Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it.
Giordano Bruno1548–1600Response to his judges on his conviction as a heretic (1600), as reported by Gaspar Schopp in a letter to Conrad Rittershausen
- Courage
Human life began in flight and fear. Religion rose from rituals of propitiation, spells to lull the punishing elements.
Camille Pagliaborn 1947Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), p. 1
- Religion
I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.
Hunter S. Thompson1937–2005Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century (2004)
You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time⁠—of anything. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid.
Stephen Colbertborn 1964Parade interview (23 September 2007)
- Laughter
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Marianne Williamsonborn 1952A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles” (1992), Ch. 7: Work, §3: Personal Power, p. 190 (p. 165 in some editions)
Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey.
G. K. Chesterton1874–1936Tremendous Trifles (1909), Ch. XVII: “The Red Angel”
- Children
The reason why you don’t put your hand in the fire is not because of fear, it’s because you know you’ll get burned. You don’t need fear to avoid an unnecessary danger, just a minimum of intelligence and common sense.
Eckhart Tolleborn 1948The Power of Now (1997)
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.
Blaise Pascal1623–1662“The Misery of Man Without God”: “Man’s Disproportion,” The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal translated from the Text of M. Auguste Molinier Tr. C. Kegan Paul (1885)
The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.
PSPublilius Syrus101–101 BCThe Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave, Maxim 511
- Life & Death
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamsonborn 1952A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles” (1992), Ch. 7: Work, §3: Personal Power, p. 190 (p. 165 in some editions)
- Freedom
Impermanence becomes vivid in the present moment; so do compassion and wonder and courage. And so does fear.
Pema Chödrönborn 1936When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)
- Change
There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.
Patrick Rothfussborn 1973The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 318)
- Anger