Inspiring Confidence & Courage Quotes (167 Quotes)

Find yourself, for courage and confidence are as
easy as breathing to the person who really knows
who he is.

~ Vernon Howard ~


Strength in numbers is the delight of the timid.
The valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


DO RIGHT

Do right even if tempted to do wrong.
Do right even if it means losing a friend.
Do right even if you don’t understand
why you should.
Do right even if you fear the consequences.
Do right even if you don’t want to.
Do right even if it feels strange.
Do right even if it arouses criticism.
Do right even if it’s you against the world.

~ Vernon Howard ~


Stand alone. Be true. Then, the people in your life will be the right ones for you.

~ Vernon Howard ~


Speak loud and clear, with head up. This will tell our emotions and mind not to be a mutterer and not to be afraid of the consequences.

~ Vernon Howard ~


A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.

~ Vernon Howard ~


Cowards die many times before their deaths.
The valiant never taste of death but once.

~ William Shakespeare ~


It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.

~ Virgil ~


True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.

~ François de la Rochefoucauld ~


Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

~ Thomas Jefferson ~


DARE GREATLY…

It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

~ Theodore Roosevelt ~


“Come to the edge.”
“We can't. We're afraid.”
“Come to the edge.”
“We can't. We will fall!”
“Come to the edge.”
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

~ Guillaume Apollinaire ~


There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.

~ I John 4:18 (Good News Bible) ~


A Psalm of David

The LORD is my light
and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the
stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and
my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

~ Psalm 27:1-3 (Bible, NIV) ~


When his duty is to face danger and he flees, it is cowardice.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

~ Source Unknown ~


Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

~ Sir Cecil Beaton ~


Confidence awakens confidence.

~ Friedrich Von Sachsen ~


Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.

~ Stan Smith ~


True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene and free. Rage, we know, can make a coward forget himself and fight. But what is done in fury or anger can never be placed to the account of courage.

~ Shaftesbury ~


The scars you acquire while exercising courage will never make you feel inferior.

~ D.A. Battista ~


Manliness consists not in bluff, bravado or lordliness. It consists in daring to do the right and facing consequences whether it is in matters social, political or other. It consists in deeds, not in words.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.

~ Dorothea Brande ~


Be larger than your task.

~ Orison Swett Marden ~


Fear has its use but cowardice has none.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


Courage is the first of human qualities
because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

~ Winston Churchill ~


Most men have more courage than even they themselves think they have.

~ Lord Greville ~


All our dreams can come true,
if we have the courage to pursue
them.

~ Walt Disney ~


Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.

~ Aaron Hill ~


The real acid test of courage
is to be just your honest self when everybody
is trying to be like somebody else.

~ Andrew Jensen ~


I decided once and for all
that I was going to make it or die.

~ John Johnson ~


Is he alone who has courage on his right hand
and faith on his left hand?

~ Charles A. Lindbergh ~


The brave don't live forever, but the cautious don't live at all. Here's to the brave!

~ Timothy Luce ~


Stand upright, speak thy thoughts,
declare the truth thou
hast, that all may share;
Be bold, proclaim it everywhere:
They only live who dare.

~ Lewis Morris ~


We are made strong by the difficulties we face, not by those we evade.

~ Source Unknown ~


It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

~ Emiliano Zapata ~


Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes!

~ Sir J. M. Barrie ~


Whether you be man or woman, you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

~ James Lane Allen ~


The better part of valour is discretion.
(reckless courage is often self-defeating)

~ Henry IV ~


'Tis better to have fought and lost, than never to have fought at all.

~ Peschiera ~


RISK TO BE FREE

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk
exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams before
the crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying. To hope
is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure.
But risks need to be taken because
the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does
nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot
learn, feel, change, grow, love...live.
Chained by his beliefs, he is a slave; he has
forfeited freedom. Only a person who risks is free.

~ Author Unknown ~


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

~ Lao-Tzu ~


Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!

~ Thomas A. Edison ~


Nothing will resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose.

~ Benjamin Disraeli ~


If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~


When you have faith and confidence in yourself, you will do more and attempt to do more.

~ Jack M. Zufelt ~


It’s better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong than to agonize at length and be right too late.

~ Marilyn Moats Kennedy (in Across the Board) ~


Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

~ Anonymous ~


The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

~ Arthur C. Clarke ~


If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

~ Henry David Thoreau ~


You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension, and discipline are taken out of your life.

~ James G. Bilkey ~


A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.

~ English Proverb ~


Initiative consists of doing the right thing without being told.

~ Irving Mack ~


Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

~ Ronald E. Osborn ~


Discoveries are often made by not following instructions; by going off the main road; by trying the untried.

~ Frank Tyger ~


Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

~ Leon J. Suenens ~


Like a boxer in a title fight, you have
to walk in that ring alone.

~ Billy Joel ~


When we stand tall in defense of our principles, the tides of adversity eventually subside.

~ Anonymous ~


A ship in the harbor is safe...but that’s not what ships were made for.

~ Anonymous ~


Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go.

~ Bernard Malamud ~


The world makes way for the man who knows where he’s going.

~ Ralph W. Emerson ~


Men of principle have courage.

~ Chinese Proverb ~


Each time we ask more of ourselves than we think we are able to give, and then manage to give it, we grow.

~ Bert Decker ~


A man must consider what a rich realm
he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~


The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.

~ Thucydides ~


Strength and courage aren't always measured in medals and victories. They are measured in the struggles they overcome. The strongest people aren't always the people who win, but the people who don't give up when they lose.

~ Ashley Hodgeson ~


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 ~


Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience.

~ James Freeman Clarke ~


To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.

~ Soren Kierkegaard ~


Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.

~ Samuel Johnson ~


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 ~


Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

~ C.S. Lewis ~


Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.

~ Raymond Lindquist ~


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 ~


Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

~ G.K. Chesterton ~


A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~


Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.

~ Robert Cody ~


Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it and conquering it.

~ Jean Paul Richter ~


This country was not built by men who relied on somebody else to take care of them. It was built by men who relied on themselves, who dared to shape their own lives, who had enough courage to blaze new trails – enough confidence in themselves to take the necessary risks.

~ J. Ollie Edmunds ~


It takes courage to push yourself to places
that you have never been before...to test
your limits...to break through barriers.
And the day came when the risk it took to
remain tight inside the bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom.

~ Anais Nin ~


If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

~ Unknown ~


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

~ Andre Gide ~


Success is not measured by what a man accomplishes, but by the opposition he has encountered and the courage with which he has maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

~ Charles Lindbergh ~


Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

~ Mark Twain ~


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

~ Seneca ~


It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save one's head.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


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

~ Confucius ~


A brave arm makes a short sword long.

~ Author Unknown ~


Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca ~


To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.

~ Theodore H. White ~


All serious daring starts from within.

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe ~


One man with courage makes a majority.

~ Andrew Jackson ~


'Tis better to have fought and lost, Than never to have fought at all.

~ Peschiera ~


Courage is to say what you believe in your heart, without fearing the consequences.

~ Anonymous ~


Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.

~ Margaret Chase Smith ~


Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~


If you want to take your mission in life
to the next level, if you're stuck and you
don't know how to rise, don't look outside
yourself. Look inside. Don't let your fears
keep you mired in the crowd. Abolish your fears
and raise your commitment level to the point
of no return, and I guarantee you that the
Champion Within will burst forth to propel you
toward victory.

~ Bruce Jenner ~


He that is good for making excuses, is seldom good for anything else.

~ Benjamin Franklin ~


There is no such thing as a good excuse.

~ John P. Grier ~


The great man is he that does not lose
his child’s-heart.

~ Mencius ~


He who fears something gives it power over him.

~ Moorish Proverb ~


It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

~ Robert Francis Kennedy ~


From caring comes courage.

~ Lao-Tzu ~


Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

~ Vince Lombardi ~


Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.

~ Jesse Jackson ~


I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.

~ Anna Freud ~


I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn't fall down.

~ Allen H. Neuharth ~


The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

~ Dale Carnegie ~


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 ~


He who is brave is free.

~ Seneca ~


As fear is close companion to falsehood,
so truth follows fearlessness.

~ Jawaharlar Nehru ~


A man of courage is also full of faith.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero ~


Deep faith eliminates fear.

~ Lech Walesa ~


Like dark clouds that cover the sun’s light
from shining through, so it is with fears that
cover the natural light of your inner courage
from shining through.

~ Gabriel Daniels ~


Act as if it were impossible to fail.

~ Dorothea Brande ~


Growth demands a temporary surrender
of security.

~ Gail Sheehy ~


He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

~ Napoleon I ~


Self-confidence is the first requisite to
great undertakings.

~ Samuel Johnson ~


As is our confidence, so is our capacity.

~ William Hazlitt ~


Last, but by no means least, courage—moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through. The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle—the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.

~ Douglas MacArthur ~


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 ~


You block your dream when you allow your fear
to grow bigger than your faith.

~ Mary Manin Morrissey ~


Courage and perseverance have a
magical talisman, before which difficulties
disappear and obstacles vanish into thin air.

~ John Quincy Adams ~


The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
The LORD is with me; he is my helper.
I will look in triumph on my enemies.

~ Psalm 118:6-7 (Bible, NIV) ~


Courage is not merely a virtue; it is the virtue.
Without it, there are no other virtues.

~ William Temple, Sr. ~


Who dares nothing need hope for nothing.

~ Friedrich Johann von Schiller ~


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

~ Brian Tracy ~


If I am not for myself, who will be?

~ Pirke Avoth ~


It's lack of faith that makes people afraid
of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself.

~ Muhammad Ali ~


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 ~


Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

~ Baltasar Gracián ~


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. ~


Do what you feel in your heart to be right—
for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be
damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~


Courage is the virtue which champions
the cause of the right.

~ Cicero ~


There is a time to take counsel of your fears,
and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

~ George S. Patton ~


It is the character of a brave and resolute man
not to be ruffled by adversity and not to
desert his post.

~ Cicero ~


It took me a long time not to judge myself
through someone else's eyes.

~ Sally Field ~


You have to expect things of yourself
before you can do them.

~ Michael Jordan ~


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

~ Erica Jong ~


Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit.
We become just by doing just acts, temperate by
doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

~ Aristotle ~


It is impossible to win the race unless you
venture to run, impossible to win the victory
unless you dare to battle.

~ Richard M. DeVos ~


Courage conquers all things: it even
gives strength to the body.

~ Ovid ~


Live as brave men and face adversity
with stout hearts.

~ Horace ~


Have courage for the great sorrows of life,
and patience for the small ones.
When you have laboriously accomplished
your daily tasks, go to sleep in peace.
God is awake.

~ Victor Hugo ~


It is a blessed thing that in every age
someone has had the individuality
enough and courage enough to stand
by his own convictions.

~ Robert Green Ingersoll ~


It's better to be a lion for a day,
than a sheep all your life.

~ Sister Elizabeth Kenny ~


If I were asked to give what I consider
the single most useful bit of advice
for all humanity it would be this:
Expect trouble as an inevitable part of
life and when it comes, hold your
head high, look it squarely in the eye
and say, "I will be bigger than you.
You cannot defeat me."

~ Ann Landers ~


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 ~


It requires more courage to suffer
than to die.

~ Napoleon Bonaparte ~


Most of us have far more courage than
we ever dreamed we possessed.

~ Dale Carnegie ~


There's no substitute for guts.

~ Bear Bryant ~


The only thing we have to fear
is fear itself.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt ~


Facing it, always facing it, that's the
way to get through. Face it.

~ Joseph Conrad ~


This is no time for ease and comfort.
It is the time to dare and endure.

~ Winston Churchill ~


When a resolute young fellow steps up to
the great bully, the world, and takes him
boldly by the beard, he is often surprised
to find it comes off in his hand, and that it
was only tied on to scare away
the timid adventurers.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~


Courage is the capacity to conduct oneself
with restraint in times of prosperity and
with courage and tenacity when
things do not go well.

~ James V. Forrestal ~


True courage is like a kite;
a contrary wind raises it higher.

~ John Petit-Senn ~


The pressure of adversity does not affect
the mind of the brave man. It is more
powerful than external circumstances.

~ Seneca ~


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 ~


Follow the path of the unsafe,
independent thinker. Expose your ideas
to the danger of controversy.
Speak your mind and fear less the
label of "crackpot" than the
stigma of conformity.

~ Thomas J. Watson ~


Do the thing you fear, and the death
of fear is certain.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~


Fears are educated into us, and can,
if we wish, be educated out.

~ Karl Augustus Menninger ~


The enemy is fear. We think it is hate;
but, it is fear.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.

~ Japanese Proverb ~


I think it's the mark of a great player to be
confident in tough situations.

~ John McEnroe ~


The history of the world is full of men
who rose to leadership, by sheer force
of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~