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Farid's Collection of Quotes

Farid Hajji

Quotes of Courage

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint on the clouds of doubt,
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things go wrong that you mustn't quit.
-- Unknown.

There is no thing we cannot overcome
Say not thy evil instinct is inherited,
Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn,
And calls down punishment that is not merited...
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Eternal Will.

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
-- William J. H. Boetcker.

Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.
-- Unknown.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-- George Bernard Shaw.

The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
-- R. G. Ingersoll.

Cheer up, take courage, do not falter,
Truth will triumph by and by,
Time all evil things will alter,
Vice and wickedness must die...
-- Colfax Burgoyne Harman. Truth Will Triumph.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.
-- George Bernard Shaw.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. ("Letter from Birmingham Jail" in "Why We Can't Wait", 1963.)

The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.
-- Kate Chopin.

Remember that failure is an event, not a person.
-- Unknown.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.
-- Brian Tracy.

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you thing about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.
-- Norman Vincent Peale.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
-- Unknown.

To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.
-- Confucius.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
-- Thomas Alva Edison.

Thinking men cannot be ruled.
-- Ayn Rand.

Courage is not defined by those who fought and did not fall, but by those who fought, fell and rose again.
-- Unknown.

God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right, even though I think it is hopeless.
-- Chester W. Nimitz.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'Press on,' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
-- Calvin Coolidge.

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.
-- Robertson Davies.

Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.
-- Orison Swett Marden.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
-- Benjamin Franklin.

Don't get discouraged; it is often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.
-- Unknown.

A man can be destroyed but not defeated.
-- Ernest Hemingway.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
-- Seneca.

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
-- Unknown.

The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed -- or did you fail because you stopped trying?
-- Unknown.

My experience has been in a short 77 years... that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.
-- Edward Teller.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
-- Bertrand Russell.

Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely.
-- Adam Michnik.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
-- Henry David Thoreau.

A journey of a thousand miles always begins with one step.
-- Ancient Egyptian Proverb.

The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
-- Unknown.

Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
-- Oliver Goldsmith.

Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.
-- Milan Kundera.

It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Try and fail, but don't fail to try.
-- Stephen Kaggwa.

Refuse to compromise what you know to be right for anyone or anything.
-- Brian Tracy.

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.
-- Erma Bombeck.

Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
-- Langston Hughes.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
-- Henry David Thoreau.

The collapse of character begins with compromise.
-- Unknown.

Speed bumps are of negligible effect when the vehicle exceeds triple the desired restraining speed.
-- Murphy's Law of Disobedience.

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night stays these Couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
-- Old Post Office Motto.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.
-- Albert Einstein.

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
-- Eddie Rickenbacker.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
-- Jonathan Swift.

You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power -- he's free again.
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterwards.
-- Paul Richter.

Love it the closest thing to true happiness that you can ever hope to achieve in this life, and if your going to let a little thing like rejection stand in your way then you might as well lie down now because people are going to walk all over you.
-- Unknown.

Either you think - or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I laugh in the face of danger... then I hide until it goes away.
-- Xander Harris.

We were a silent, hidden thought in the folds of oblivion, and we have become a voice that causes the heavens to tremble.
-- Khalil Gibran.

A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer.
-- Norwegian Proverb.

Reach for the moon, even if you miss you'll be among the stars.
-- Unknown.

O, thou weak and oppressed, a new era is dawning,
Right battled with might and a victory won.
Grope not in the night. Watch the gleam of the morning,
Doff sorrow and gloom. Turn thy face to the sun.
-- Colfax Burgoyne Harman. Turn Thy Face To The Sun.

But he that dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.
-- Anne Brontë

The only thing required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
-- Unknown.

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-Hershey.

Trust the still, small voice that says, "this might work and I'll try it."
-- Diane Mariechild.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
-- Anais Nin.

Train your head and hands to do, your head and heart to dare.
-- Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.

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.

Only those who dare fail greatly can achieve greatly.
-- Robert F. Kennedy.

The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.
-- Richard M. Nixon.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.
-- Seneca.

Who dares nothing need hope for nothing.
-- Friedrich Johann von Schiller.

Failure is opportunity in disguise.
-- Unknown.

Our society is so caught up in winning, we forget that most of the great men and women in history have, at one time or another, failed at something. Often repeatedly, and discouragingly. But each failure is nothing more than a brick in the wall that forms the foundation of our success. We can't forget that.
-- Carlton Young.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.
-- Dale Carnegie.

Our time is fix'd; and all our days are number'd;
How long, how short, we know not; this we know,
Duty requires we calmly wait the summons,
Nor dare to stir till Heaven shall give permission.
And wait th' appointed hour, till they're relieved,
Those only are the brave who keep their ground,
And keep it to the last.
-- Blair.

You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.
-- Maya Angelou.

Action is the antidote to despair.
-- Joan Baez.

It's not enough to have a dream, Unless you're willing to pursue it. It's not enough to know what's right, Unless you're strong enough to do it. It's not enough to learn the truth, Unless you also learn to live it. It's not enough to reach for love, Unless you care enough to give it. Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.
-- Samuel Smiles.

Defeat isn't bitter if you don't swallow it.
-- Unknown.

Events are less important than our response to them.
-- Unknown.

It is better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand days as a lamb.
-- Roman Proverb.

Live your own life, for you will die your own death.
-- Latin proverb.

New ideas pass through three periods: *It can't be done. *It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing *I knew it was a good idea all along!
-- Arthur C. Clarke.

You can't test courage cautiously.
-- Unknown.

To sit back and do nothing is to cooperate with the oppressor.
-- Jane Elliot.

All serious daring starts from within.
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Snowflakes are one of natures most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.
-- Vista M. Kelly.

In Russia all tyrants believe poets to be their worst enemies.
-- Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Don't wait for your ship to come in. Row out to meet it.
-- Unknown.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has courage to lose sight of the shore.
-- Unknown.

Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.
-- Mark Twain.

I don't want to die without scars.
-- Tyler Durden.

And the trouble is if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
-- Erica Jong.

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.
-- Doug Larson.

Do not go where the path may lead instead go where there is no path and leave a trail.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Only dead fish go with the flow.
-- Unknown.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt.

To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.
-- Charles Caleb Colton.

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
-- Henry Drummond.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.
-- Mahatma Gandhi.

Some succeed because they are destined to. But most succeed because they are determined to.
-- Unknown.

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In Europe and America they came for the Communists
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Roma,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Roma.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Negros,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Negro.
Then they came for the Asians
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an Asian.
Then they came for the Arabs & the Muslims,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an Arab or a Muslim.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't in a union.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant
Then they came for the asylum-seekers,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an asylum-seeker.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
-- paraphrased from Pastor Martin Niemöller.

Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson.

Never let your sense of morals keep you from doing what is right.
-- Isaac Asimov.

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.
-- Lillian Hellman.

A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular.
-- Adlai Stevenson.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.
-- Helen Keller.

Courage consists of the power of self-recovery.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.
-- Mary Pickford.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Self-confidence is the result of a successfully survived risk.
-- Jack Gibb.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Action may not always be happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
-- Unknown.

One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this.
-- Don Quixote.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what what it takes to sit down and listen.
-- Winston Churchill.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Think impossible and dreams get discarded, projects get abandoned, and hope for wellness is torpedoed. But let someone yell the words It's possible, and resources we hadn't been aware of come rushing in to assist us in our quest.
-- Greg Anderson.

To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
-- Elbert Hubbard.

Self-esteem must be earned! When you dare to dream, dare to follow that dream, dare to suffer through the pain, sacrifice, self-doubts, and friction from the world, you will genuinely impress yourself.
-- Laura Schlessinger.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
-- George W. Bush. (9/11/2001).

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.
-- Orison Swett Marden.

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
-- Harvey Fierstein.

Be who you are and say what you feel,
Because those who mind don't matter,
And those who matter don't mind.
-- Dr. Seuss.

Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt.

It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.
-- W. Somerset Maugham.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights, cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
-- Ayn Rand.

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
-- Maya Angelou.

Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government.
-- Pierre Joseph Proudhon.

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
-- William Shakespeare, King Henry V, Act IV, Scene III.

With enough thrust, even pigs can fly.
-- Unknown.

The Path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire -- the light of daring burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain.
-- Helena Petrova Blavatsky.

The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make.
-- Unknown.

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.
-- Amelia Earhart.

Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
-- Dag Hammerskjold.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.
-- B. C. Forbes.

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
-- Aristotle.

In Russia all tyrants believe poets to be their worst enemies.
-- Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

He who lets the small things bind him, leaves the great undone behind him.
-- Unknown.

My wings are tattered, bloody and torn,
Dying, falling, I slowly crawl.
My life is forfeit, no longer mine by right.
I lost it when I took my flight.

I soared for a moment in to the sky,
My wings thrilled with feeling.
A flurry of feathers, I danced and I sang
Now all I feel is loss and it's murderous pang.

Now I crawl in the dirt, blood in my mouth.
Stare up at the moonlight far in the distant skies.
Bliss was short-lived, as I soon found.
You condemned my heart, I was flung to the ground.

My wings may be destroyed and dull,
I am cold but not completely numb.
My heart is not dead and my spirit is strong.
I know these feelings within my breast are not wrong.

Crush my body, do you think I care?
I'll drag myself to the heavens somehow.
I will find a way to save my soul, save my dying light.
I will dance once again, my whole being will ignite.

Don't think I can be shattered quite so easily.
My heart is strong, as you shall come to see.
-- DarkSylph (Fallen).

Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.
-- Jesse Jackson.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt.

La parole ne se demande pas, elle se prend.
[Roughly: Don't wait for permission [to speak], do it!]
-- Unknown.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent into the dark place where it leads.
-- Erica Jong.

Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the hell with sugar and spice.
-- Unknown.

Learning how to stand up is easy. Learning how to stand up after you've fallen down, that is tough.
-- Dican.

When you cease to make a contribution; you begin to die.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt.

Those who wish to gain security by restricting freedom will not have nor do they deserve either one.
-- Benjamin Franklin.

...a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing...
-- Thomas Jefferson.

Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.
-- Khalil Gibran.

The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful in society, had that society been well organized.
-- Mary Shelly Wollstonecraft.

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
-- Anne Frank.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
-- Lao Tzu.

It is not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.
-- Unknown.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never gets far from shore.
-- Dale Carnegie.

If you have a great ambition, take as big a step as possible in the direction of fulfilling it. The step may only be a tiny one, but trust that it may be the largest one possible for now.
-- Mildred McAfee.

Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.
-- David Henry Thoreau, Civil Disobedience.

The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.
-- Alan Ashley-Pitt.

Note how good you feel after you have encouraged someone else. No other argument is necessary to suggest that never miss the opportunity to give encouragement.
-- George Adams.

Not that I love thy children, whose dull eyes
See nothing save their own unlovely woe,
Whose minds know nothing, nothing care to know, -
But that the roar of thy Democracies,
Thy reigns of Terror, thy great Anarchies,
Mirror my wildest passions like the sea
And give my rage a brother -! Liberty!
For this sake only do thy dissonant cries
Delight my discreet soul, else might all kings
By bloody knout or treacherous cannonades
Rob nations of their rights inviolate
And I remain unmoved - and yet, and yet,
These Christs that die upon the barricades,
God knows it I am with them, in some things.
-- Oscar Wilde, Sonnet To Liberty.

You can't build character and courage by taking away men's initiative & independence.
-- Unknown.

You must have long range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short range failures.
-- Charles Noble.

A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the past, and a silent ignoring of pretended authority; brave looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life.
-- Elbert Hubbard.

Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees.
-- J. Willard Marriott.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.
-- Khalil Gibran.

We fail far more often by timidity than by over-daring.
-- David Grayson.

To me, there is no greater act of courage than being the one who kisses first.
-- Janeane Garafolo.

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