Mark Twain Courage Quotations

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

It is curious - curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare

That's what an army is -- a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers.

That's what an army is - a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers.

Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.

To believe yourself brave is to be brave; it is the one only essential thing.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.

Except a person be part coward, it is not a compliment to say he is brave.

Why is it that, among men, physical courage is a trait so plenteous yet moral courage is a trait so rare?

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea! - incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.