Quotes about Courage

It is said that God allows the demons to attack us for five reasons.  The first is that, through being attacked and fighting back, we should learn to distinguish virtue from sin.  The second is that having acquired virtue by struggle and labor we should keep it firm and unalterable.  The third, that progressing in virtue we should not think highly of ourselves but learn humility.  The fourth, that having experienced in practice the wickedness of sin we should hate it with perfect hatred.  Finally, the fifth and most important is that having been freed from the passions we should not forget our weakness and the strength of Him that helped us.

It is time that you realized that the enemy will not leave alone anyone who desires to be saved.  Consquently, the battle against him will not cease until death.  Futhermore, the evil one can not be conquered through one's own strength.  It was to destroy the works of the devil that Christ came to earth.  Together with those who always call upon Him for help, Christ battles against the devil and against sin.  Man should likewise rise up with all his strength against sin and the devil, using as weapons the means indicated by the Lord, the Apostles and the Holy fathers.  For an Orthodox Christian these weapons are prayer, fasting, soberity and humility.  Without humility, nothing will be of any use, for those who are proud and sure of themselves will not recieve the Lord's help, but inevitably fall into various snares of the devil.

Listen, daughter, to those words of unspoken bravery, which are characteristic only of love.  Out of love, the Son of God humiliated Himself, served, taught, healed, fed, strengthened, straightened, gladdened, suffered, was in distress, forgave, and died.  "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life as ransom for many." (Matt. 20:28)  When serving, He served with rejoicing; when sacrificing Himself, He sacrificed voluntarily, not worrying about Himself, but looking constantly with an everlasting, ardent love towards the heavens, at those two other Persons of the Holy Trinity.  That is the simple existence of love in the Son.  That is also the natural way of men who have love.  Because of this St. Nilus of Sinai says, "With pain you have aquired divine love, that all become easy to do and maintain.  But where there is no love, there is no repose."  And all becomes difficult and impossible.

Just as sparks rise from the fire.  So is man born into troubles.

The journey to wholeness requires that you look honestly, openly, and with courage into yourself, into the dynamics that lie behind what you feel, what you perceive, what you value, and how you act. It is a journey through your defenses and beyond, so that you can experience consciously the nature of your personality, face what it has produced in your life, and choose to change that. Words lead to deeds. They prepare the soul, make it ready, and move it to tenderness.

Remember that when you leave this earth you can taken nothing of what you have received, but only what you have a given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean do not be disheartened by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage. How are we to be patient in dealing with our neighbour's faults if we are impatient in dealing with our own? He who is fretted by his own failings will not correct them. All profitable correction comes from a calm and peaceful mind.

...in all the woods and forests, God did not create a single leaf the same as any other… People go against nature because they lack the courage to be different.

We all have the ability…we just don't all have the courage to follow our dreams and to follow the signs.

We are always afraid to start something that we want to make very good, true, and serious.

In true courage there is always an element of choice, of an ethical choice, and of anguish, and also of action and deed. There is always a flame of spirit in it, a vision of some necessity higher than oneself.

You can't expect to win unless you know why you lose

I've also used my imagination to help others heal themselves.  I once went to visit a Hopi rattke maker in Arizona.  It took all of my intuitive powers to find her house up high in the mountains, having to make choices of which way to go every hundred feet or so.  When I arrived, her granddaughter was crying in pain, holding her ears.  She had had a terrible earache for twenty-four hours.  Instinctively, I approached the five-year-old and told her, "I'm going to put my hand on your ear and take away the pain.  I want you to see the pain.  What does it look like?  What shape is it?  What color?  What does it sound like?  Does it smell?  How would you feel if you touched it?  Now I want you to imagine it leaving your ear and entering my hand."  She looked up at me with huge brown eyes full of trust.  I put my hand on her ear, held it there a few minutes, and then ran to the door and blew the pain out of my hand and closed the door.  Within seconds the pain was gone.  Her grandmother, the rattle maker, stood there grinning from ear to ear.  "That's what my grandfather would have done," she said, "He was a shaman."

In a few minutes, the room seemed to fill with people.  Someone placed a chair in the middle of the room and people took turns sitting in it, asking for a healing.  Headaches, sores, back pains, and so on.  In each case I trusted myself to do what came naturally.  It's a day I'll never forget, as I discovered the range of my healing powers as they were drawn out by people for whom healing power was natural medicine.

Imagination is powerful.  Imagination is healing.  All you need is the courage to visualize what should be, and then give yourself to its creation.  The result may not be what you expected, but it will be right.

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

"Be careful with your mouth, but primarily with your mind; do not let evil thoughts start talking to you.  Do not let your mouth say words that could perhaps wound your brother.  Let your mouth put forth words which are fragrant: words of consolation, courage and hope.  It is a person's mouth that reveals his interior, inner man."

Elder Ephraim of Philitheou and St. Anthony's Orthodox Monasteries.www.stanthonysmonastery.org/index.php

Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.

To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

You must have love as the core; it takes courage to be willing to constantly tell the truth to each other and risk letting the relationship go.

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

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.

We have come into this exquisite world to experience ever and ever more deeply our divine courage, freedom and light!

Greatness, in the last analysis, is largely bravery - courage in escaping from old ideas and old standards and respectable ways of doing things.

I'm afraid of taking steps that are not on the map, but by taking those steps despite my fears, I have a much more interesting life.

Non-doing has nothing to do with being indolent or passive. Quite the contrary. It takes great courage and energy to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in activity. Nor is it easy to make a special time for non-doing and to keep at it in the face of everything in our lives which needs to be done.

No one wishes for crisis, but when crises come, they can call forth our best impulses, those of compassion, courage, creativity, and community.  And if there are crimes and evils hidden in the dark places of our society and the darker places of our consciousnesses, all the better they come to the surface to be seen, understood, confronted, and healed.  If our generation is called to bear a burden of that healing, it is a powerful calling and honor and one within our capability.

Let my life be an example In my Successes and my Failures. Within me is the light of God, the wisdom of the ages if I can just have the courage to trust and believe.
To look for that same God light in everyone I meet.
Within me is the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Theresa and of all those who went before me;
speaking of Love, Peace and Compassion.

It isn't the easy thing that is the right thing...
It is not in my silent acceptance of what I know
my heart that is wrong that will make a difference.
It is by having the Courage;
to look into the mirror of my life,
and hold my life up as a mirror to others;.
It is by my Word, Deed and Example
that I will change the world.

Marianne Goldweber
Spiritualist Minister

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

Quiconque tremble une seconde laisse peut-etre echapper l'appat que, pendant cette seconde justement, la fortune lui tendait.