120 Quotes About Courage to Inspire and Motivate You (2023)

Courage is a quality that everyone admires, yet few possess. It is the ability to take risks, stand up for what one believes in, and face one’s fears. Courage can be found in many different forms, such as physical courage, moral courage, and emotional courage.

Physical courage is the courage to face physical danger. It is the bravery to do something despite the potential risks or harm. This type of courage can be seen in the actions of soldiers, firefighters, and police officers. It is also seen in everyday acts of heroism, such as rescuing a child from a burning building.

Courage can also help someone make difficult decisions and take risks when needed. It can also give people the strength to stand up for what is right and fight for what they believe in. With courage, people can find the strength to make positive changes in their lives and the lives of others.

It is the mental or moral strength that allows someone to face danger, fear, or difficult situations with confidence and determination. Having courage can help someone face any obstacle, no matter how difficult it may seem.

120 Most Inspiring Quotes About Courage

These courageous quotes express how important it is to look within and find the fire that lights your path.

Save this list of quotes on courage so you can quickly access it the next time you’re looking for a few uplifting phrases. Read these quotes about courage, optimism, and progress for more motivation and inspiration.

30 Courage Quotes

1. “It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

2. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
– Lao Tzu

3. “Courage is found in unlikely places.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

4. “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

5. “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne

6. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston S. Churchill

7. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. – Winston Churchill

8. “You must always remember this: Have courage and be kind. You have more kindness in your little finger than most people possess in their whole body. And it has power. More than you know.” – Brittany Candau

9. “Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.” – Shannon L. Alder

10. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – E.E. Cummings

11. “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” – Aristotle

12. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” – Maya Angelou

13. “Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it’s what you believe, and the heck with everybody.” – Justin Cronin

14. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee

15. “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” – Helen Keller

16. “The secret to happiness is freedom … and the secret to freedom is courage.” – Thucydides

17. “Courage to me is doing something daring, no matter how afraid, insecure, intimidated, alone, unworthy, incapable, ridiculed or whatever paralyzing emotion you might feel. Courage is taking action….no matter what. So you’re afraid? Be afraid. Be scared silly to the point you’re trembling and nauseous, but do it anyway!” – Richelle E. Goodrich

18. “Courage is being scared to death … and saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne

19. “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” – Helen Keller

20. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” – Maya Angelou

21. “Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear. Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at your to fight or flee – and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do.” – Jim Butcher

22. “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel

23. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

24. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – William Faulkner

25. “Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.” – Bryce Courtenay

26. “Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.” – C. JoyBell C.

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

28. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anaïs Nin

29. “Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. He is also a fool.” – Robert A. Heinlein

30. “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” – Jane Austen

30 Transforming Quotes About Courage

31. “The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.” – Jim Hightower

32. “Courage results when one’s convictions are bigger than one’s fears.” – Orrin Woodward

33. “Because no matter what they say, you always have a choice. You just don’t always have the guts to make it.” – Ray N. Kuili

34. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
– Maya Angelou

35. “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” – John Wooden

36. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali

37. “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.” – Victor Hugo

38. “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” – Rumi

39. “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato

40. “Courage is grace under pressure.” – Ernest Hemingway

41. “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. ” – C.S. Lewis

42. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

43. “Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne

44. “The opposite of courage is not cowardice; it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.” – Jim Hightower

45. “We have to be braver than we think we can be because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.” – Madeleine L’Engle

46. “Courage is found in unlikely places.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

47. “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” – George S. Patton

48. “With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” – Margaret Mitchell

49. “Everyone has talent. What’s rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.” – Erica Jong

50. “If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” – John Irving

51. “The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” – Paulo Coelho

52. “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” – Erich Fromm

53. “To have the courage for whatever comes in life—everything lies in that.” – Saint Teresa of Ávila

54. “It’s your life; you don’t need someone’s permission to live the life you want. Be brave to live from your heart.” – Roy T. Bennett

55. “All happiness depends on courage and work.” – Honoré de Balzac

56. “He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.” – Socrates

57. “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” – Aristotle

58. “You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.” – Roy T. Bennett

59. “With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” – Margaret Mitchell

60. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” – E. F. Schumacher

30 Inspiring Quotes About Courage

61. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee

62. “He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.” – Jean-Luc Godard

63. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

64. “Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.” – Carl von Clausewitz

65. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on—it is going on when you don’t have strength.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

66. “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” – W. Clement Stone

67. “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” – Ann Landers

68. “Don’t Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

69. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela

70. “The best protection any woman can have … is courage.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

71. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” – Maya Angelou

72. “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”
– Victor Hugo

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

74. “Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.” – Arthur Koestler

75. “A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.” – Lao Tzu

76. “Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.” – August Wilson

77. “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change, there is power.” – Alan Cohen

78. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

79. “Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.” – R.J. Palacio

80. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

81. “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” – W. Clement Stone

82. “One man with courage is a majority.” – Thomas Jefferson

83. “No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens.” – Veronica Roth

84. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee

85. “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” – Amelia Earhart

86. “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” – George S. Patton

87. “Life is not about living the safer option. Life is about living a life worth living.” – Robert Thier

88. “Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it’s actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.” – Christopher Paolini

89. “We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.” – Haile Selassie

90. “The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

30 Courage Quotes in English

91. “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

92. “Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.” – David Ben-Gurion

93. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

94. “The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.” – Carrie Jones

95. “Without fear, there cannot be courage.” – Christopher Paolini

96. “The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

97. “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” – Erma Bombeck

98. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

99. “The strongest people find the courage and caring to help others, even if they are going through their own storm.” – Roy T. Bennett

100. “Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.” – Charlie Chaplin 

101. “The best protection any woman can have… is courage.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

102. “From caring comes courage.” – Lao Tzu

103. “If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.” – David Viscott

104. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

105. “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” – Mark Twain

106. “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

107. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

108. “I would define true courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.” – William Tecumseh Sherman

109. “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” – Mary Tyler Moore

110. “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” – Vincent Van Gogh

111. “True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is.” – Norman Schwarzkopf

112. “Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” – Thomas Szasz

113. “We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” – Barbara De Angelis

114. “It takes strength and courage to admit the truth.” – Rick Riordan

115. “He is a man of courage who does not run away but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.” – Socrates

116. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

117. “It takes courage…to endure the sharp pains of self-discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.” – Marianne Williamson

118. “Courage is on display every day, and only the courageous wring the most out of life.” –Zig Ziglar

119. “I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.” – Catherine the Great

120. “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.” – Victor Hugo

How Courage Contributes to Self-Improvement?

Having courage can help in personal growth by allowing an individual to take risks and step outside of their comfort zone.

It can also provide the motivation and confidence to pursue goals, try new things, and take on challenges. When an individual is willing to take risks and step out of their comfort zone, they can gain valuable experiences and insights that can help them grow.

Courage can also help an individual become more resilient, as they are willing to face challenges and work through difficult situations.

Finally, courage can help an individual become more self-aware, as they are willing to examine their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in order to make positive changes.