Theme

Courage

Not the absence of fear, and not a mood. These lines treat courage as a practice: the next true step, taken while afraid, often in public.

1. I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.Anne FrankThe Diary of a Young Girl
2. Failure is impossible.Susan B. AnthonyHer birthday greeting, reported at the end of her life
3. Under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not.Hannah ArendtEichmann in Jerusalem
4. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.Neil ArmstrongWords spoken on the Moon
5. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.James BaldwinAs Much Truth as One Can Bear
6. I will seize fate by the throat. It shall not wholly overcome me.Ludwig van BeethovenLetter to Franz Wegeler
7. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.Edmund BurkeThoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
8. The die is cast.Julius CaesarSuetonius, Life of Julius Caesar
9. In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.Albert CamusReturn to Tipasa
10. I know who I am, and who I may be, if I choose.Miguel de CervantesDon Quixote
11. If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.Shirley ChisholmA line she used with audiences throughout her career
12. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.Winston ChurchillSpeech to the House of Commons
13. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.Winston ChurchillSpeech to the House of Commons
14. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’Winston ChurchillSpeech to the House of Commons
15. We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.Marie CuriePierre Curie
16. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.Emily DickinsonPoem 314
17. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.Frederick DouglassWest India Emancipation speech
18. The eyes of the world are upon you.Dwight D. EisenhowerOrder of the Day
19. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.Eleanor RooseveltYou Learn by Living
20. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.Ralph Waldo EmersonSelf-Reliance
21. Of things, some are in our power, and others are not.EpictetusEnchiridion
22. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.Franklin D. RooseveltFirst Inaugural Address
23. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.Viktor FranklMan’s Search for Meaning
24. And yet it moves.Galileo GalileiAttributed after the trial of 1633
25. Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.Mohandas K. GandhiStatement at the Great Trial
26. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.Nathan HaleReported last words
27. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.Ernest HemingwayA Farewell to Arms
28. Give me liberty, or give me death!Patrick HenrySpeech to the Virginia Convention
29. I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.Zora Neale HurstonHow It Feels to Be Colored Me
30. Dare to know.Immanuel KantAnswering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?
31. Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.Helen KellerOptimism
32. Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.John F. KennedyInaugural Address
33. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.Martin Luther King Jr.I’ve Been to the Mountaintop
34. Here I stand. I can do no other.Martin LutherLater accounts of the Diet of Worms
35. It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.Nelson MandelaStatement from the dock at the Rivonia Trial
36. What does not kill me makes me stronger.Friedrich NietzscheTwilight of the Idols
37. If we have our own why of life, we shall get along with almost any how.Friedrich NietzscheTwilight of the Idols
38. These are the times that try men’s souls.Thomas PaineThe American Crisis
39. The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.Rosa ParksRosa Parks: My Story
40. I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.Sylvia PlathThe Bell Jar
41. Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope.The Qur’anThe Quran
42. If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?Percy Bysshe ShelleyOde to the West Wind
43. Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.Rabindranath TagoreFireflies
44. Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.ThucydidesHistory of the Peloponnesian War
45. I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.Harriet TubmanRemarks recalled from her lectures
46. Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.William TyndaleJohn Foxe, Actes and Monuments
47. The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.Ida B. WellsA motto of her reporting
48. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.Elie WieselNobel lecture
49. I accuse.Émile ZolaJ’Accuse…!

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