28 inspiring book excerpts on courage and determination.

1. 28 Great Book
Quotes on Courage
Joe Tye, Founder and CEO
Values Coach Inc.

3. “To be courageous... requires no
exceptional qualifications, no magic
formula, no special combination of
time, place and circumstance. It is
an opportunity that sooner or later
is presented to us all.”

4. “Fear is greatest when things
are going badly. And this is
just the time when courage is
most needed.”

5. “One of the most frightening aspects
of commitment is the specter of
success... Because unconditional
commitment to one’s work is
powerful, it is also terrifying –
so terrifying that many of
us screen it out of our
awareness at all costs.”

6. “Be brave. Even if you’re
not, pretend to be. No one
can tell the difference.”

7. “Often the bravest warriors were
originally the greatest cowards.
The more fear you confront and
conquer the greater courage you
will possess.”

8. “He who has conquered doubt and
fear has conquered failure. His
every thought is allied with power,
and all difficulties are bravely met
and wisely overcome...
Thought allied fearlessly
to purpose becomes creative
force.”

9. “People who think they fear failure
have got it wrong. They really fear
success. If you truly feared failure,
you’d be very successful. People who
truly fear anything stay as far away
from it as possible.”

10. “Courage gives consolation,
patience, and experience, and
becomes indistinguishable
from faith and hope.”

11. “Just as fire transforms the energy
of a dead tree into warmth, light,
and protection, so our fears ignite
us. They create energy that can
prepare us for danger before it
arrives, stimulate us to take
action, and keep us moving
when we are exhausted.”

12. “Fear! A terrible enemy – treacherous
and difficult to overcome. It remains
concealed at every turn of the way,
prowling, waiting. And if the man,
terrified in its presence, runs away,
his enemy will have put an
end to his quest.”

13. “Give fear a name and it becomes
just a problem. It's easier to solve
problems than it is to conquer
nameless fear..”

14. “Always use the proper name
for things. Fear of a name
increases fear of the thing
itself.”

15. “We had better learn to doubt our
inflated fears before they destroy us.
Valid fears have their place; they cue
us to danger. False and overdrawn
fears only cause hardship. Even
concerns about real dangers,
when blown out of proportion,
do demonstrable harm.”

16. “Anxiety is the call to adventure, a
hero’s journey into the dark forest.
The secret of anxiety is that it is the
hidden path to inner peace. Rightly
used, it can lead us where we have
always longed to go.”

17. “No important undertaking was
ever yet carried out without the
Commander having to subdue
new doubts in himself at the
time of commencing the
execution of his work.”

18. “The wise man in the storm prays to
God, not for safety from danger, but
for deliverance from fear. It is the
storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.”

19. “It is one of the great jokes of
existence. When people take the
courage to journey into the
center of their fear, they find –
nothing. It was only many
layers of fear, being afraid
of itself.”

20. “The more important a call or action
is to our soul’s evolution, the more
Resistance we will feel toward
pursuing it… The more scared
we are of a work or calling,
the more sure we can be
that we have to do it.”

21. “Courage is a moral quality; it is
not a chance gift of nature like an
aptitude for games. It is a cold
choice between two alternatives,
the fixed resolve not to quit; an
act of renunciation which
must be made not once but
many times by the power
of will.”

22. “The worst, most damaging learning
disability – also by far the most
common, affecting 100 percent of
the population at one time or
another – is fear. Simple fear.
Fear of failing. Fear of looking
stupid. Fear of being
ridiculed or rejected.”

23. “When we begin to examine ourselves,
we feel most insecure. It is then that
we most look for approval. Finding
none, many abandon the quest. This is
the time for courage and perseverance.”

24. “Courage is… the willingness to
differentiate, to move from the
protecting realms of parental
dependence to new levels of freedom
and integration... The opposite of
courage is not cowardice:
[it is] automaton conformity.”

25. “Courage is not something that you
already have that makes you brave
when the tough times start. Courage
is what you earn when you’ve been
through the tough times and
you discover they aren’t
so tough after all.”

26. “Every time we prevail – if even
for a moment – over anxiety,
fear of failure, feelings of
vulnerability and inferiority,
we are not left even. We are
not as we were; we are ahead.
With each obstacle we
conquer, we grow larger.”

27. “What courageous people feel is
fear… In fact, it is what all of us
feel in a hundred little ways every
day of our lives. We feel frightened
and demonstrate courage.”

28. “Once you know in your heart that
Real inventiveness, creativity and
even love are impossible without the
lessons we learn from failure, you feel
more courageous about making
an effort.”

29. “It is perfectly OK to feel fear. It is
never OK to give in to the fear: to do
what the fear is telling you to do. On
the field of battle, and in your office
as [well], this is the essence of
heroism.”

30. “We complain to get sympathy,
attention, and to avoid stepping up
to something we’re afraid of doing.”

31. Available at
Amazon