As you probably realise by now, I am drawn to names of all kinds of things, and boats are high on that list.
Since seeing ‘Courage’ docked in Dunmore East the other day, I have found myself searching around for what I perceive as some of the great quotes about courage and here’s a small selection of my favourites:
#1. ‘It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.‘ (e.e. cummings)
#2. ‘The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.’ (Robert Green Ingersoll)
#3. ‘Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.’ (Lucius Anneaus Seneca)
#4. ‘ I think we all have empathy but we may not have the courage to display it.’ (Maya Angelou)
#5. ‘Courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.’ (Nelson Mandela)
#6. ‘All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with white carpet is one of them.’ (Erma Bombeck)
Have you a favourite saying or thought about courage? I’d love to hear about it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about courage today and what it entails. Here’s a few takes on it that I rather like:
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. (Anais Nin)
Everyone has talent. What’s rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places that it leads. ( Erica Jong)
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)
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. (E.E. Cummings)
A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live. (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching)
Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day a single moment comes along to define every second that some after. Such moments are tests of courage, of strength.’ ( Sabaa Tahir)
Courage is knowing what not to fear. (Plato)
You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself. ( The Wizard of Oz)
I took this photograph last Sunday as the name of the trawler captured my imagination. I’ve been thinking about courage a good deal since then and the quote that sums its meaning up best for me is this one:
Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway. (John Wayne)
I’d love to know what courage means to you and what is the most courageous act you know.
I am often baffled by people’s courage and bravery and my mother’s fortitude in coping with very significant physical problems in the five years before her death is a typical example. Just a few months before she died, I wrote a poem about her and the last three lines were as follows:
You’ve kept some dreams and memories locked away
Inside your heart; the key to your courage
And optimism; the seed beneath the clay.
A few months after she died I came across a composition on Bravery that she had written, at the tender age of 13, in 1934. It was like a key that shed light on her courage that I had admired so much. This is what she wrote in her still childish writing:
Bravery
Bravery is not merely a great gift, as many people imagine. One of the greatest forms of bravery is conquering fear. To set one’s teeth and say: ‘I will be brave,’ whether it is a child who is afraid of the dark, or a soldier about to risk his life.
The child or the soldier who knows no fear is not half as brave as the one who is in mortal fear and yet conquers it.
Some people are naturally courageous, while others are timid. One of the most cowardly things for a human to do is for the naturally brave to mock the naturally timid. Generally one does not recognise the nature of the other, and so this occurs thousands of times a day to the misery of the timid victim.
Bravery is seen as much, if not more, in women than men, though it is generally not recognised.
Many animals are very brave, especially intelligent ones like horses and dogs, and many stories have been written and sung about them. Horses have galloped for aeons through every sort of peril to save their master or mistress. It might be a forest fire, or perhaps through gunfire and shells. ‘Canons to the right of them, canons to the left of them, rode the six hundred.’ The horses as well as the men must have been courageous and faithful to the core in this dreadful charge.
There is no one who has not an opportunity for bravery nearly every day of their life, and it is the insignificant and uncomplaining folk who are generally braver than the people who go about bragging of all the deeds they have done.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of Mother’s death and I feel incredibly fortunate to have so many of her writings ~ both serious and highly humorous ~ to keep me thinking, laughing and loving.
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 