22 Inspirational Quotes About Courage to Conquer Fear and Pursue the Unknown

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Inspirational quotes to overcome fear, take a leap of faith and and pursue courageousness. 

Whether we’re starting a new job, prepping for a difficult conversation or just in need of an extra push to get us out of our comfort zone, we all need a little extra courage. No matter what you’re doing, here are 22 inspirational quotes to motivate you and inspire your courageous side.

1. 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

2. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? -Vincent Van Gogh

3. 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

4. Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. -John F. Kennedy

5. From caring comes courage. -Lao Tzu

6. 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

7. The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. -Coco Chanel

8. Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage. -Confucius

9. I think my mother… made it clear that you have to live life by your own terms and you have to not worry about what other people think and you have to have the courage to do the unexpected. -Caroline Kennedy

10. We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

12. Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness. –Susan Gale

13. Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence. -Thomas Szasz

14. If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.-John Maxwell

15. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. -Mark Twain

16. To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. -Soren Kierkegaard

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

18. 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

19. Optimism is the foundation of courage. -Nicholas Murray Butler

20. Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears. -Arthur Koestler

21. Courage is grace under pressure. -Ernest Hemingway

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

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Image: nathan williams

Anna Brones

Anna Brones is a food + travel writer with a love for coffee and bikes. She is the author of The Culinary Cyclist and Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break. Catch her weekly column, Foodie Underground.