Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
Source: Orations, Plymouth address (1802)
Topic
Courage in this collection is not the absence of fear but something more demanding: action in full knowledge of what is at stake. Martin Luther King's formulation is the most precise — courage faces fear and thereby masters it — distinguishing courage from recklessness, which does not face fear but ignores it. Jefferson's "one man with courage is a majority" is the democratic claim: courage is not a social resource but an individual one, which is both its power and its isolation. Franklin's "well done is better than well said" and Hemingway's "the shortest answer is doing the thing" are the anti-rhetorical entries: courage is action that makes speech unnecessary. Goethe's boldness-has-magic aphorism is the most romantically compelling — genius and power appear where boldness begins. Anatole France enlarges the frame: not only act but dream, not only plan but believe. The collection does not claim that courage succeeds. It claims that courage is what distinguishes the attempt from the abstention, and that the distinction matters regardless of outcome.
Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
But a conflict of forces requires nothing so much as brave men; and of these, I believe, the larger number is with us, and with those who share our danger.
No arguments will give courage to the coward.
If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion.
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above it.
Courage without conscience is a wild beast.
If he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
None but the brave deserves the fair.
Keep the peace; take courage, and make your preparations.