250 Courage Quote of the Day: Best Brave Lines for Strength

Whether you need the nerve to start something new, the resolve to keep going through hardship, or the moral courage to stand alone, you will find a quote below that speaks directly to your moment. Save your favorites, share one with someone who needs it, and come back tomorrow for another dose of bravery.

Editor’s Picks: 11 Best Courage Quotes

Timeless Courage Classics

These are the lines people return to for generations — the classic words on bravery that never lose their edge.

1. Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit. — J. R. R. Tolkien
3. Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point. — C. S. Lewis
4. Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. — Harper Lee
5. Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. — William Shakespeare
6. Bravery never goes out of fashion. — William Makepeace Thackeray
7. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. — Paulo Coelho
8. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision. — Attributed to Winston Churchill
9. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. — Henry David Thoreau
10. Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart. — Paulo Coelho
11. It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. — Paulo Coelho
12. Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. — Thich Nhat Hanh
13. Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. — Paulo Coelho
14. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. — Harper Lee
15. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. — George Bernard Shaw
16. If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. — Bruce Lee
17. I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. — Harper Lee
18. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. — James Baldwin

Facing Fear Head-On

Fear doesn’t disappear. These quotes are about meeting it directly and moving forward anyway.

1. The fears we don’t face become our limits. — Robin Sharma
2. Bravery is not the absence of fear but the action in the face of fear. — Unknown
3. Fearless is not the absence of fear. Fearless is having fears but you jump anyway. — Taylor Swift
4. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. — Ambrose Redmoon
5. Courage is fear that has said its prayers. — Joyce Meyer
6. Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened. — Billy Graham
7. Here I stand, I can do no other. — Martin Luther
8. Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. — Corrie ten Boom
9. We are what we believe we are. — C. S. Lewis
10. The first step is you have to say that you can. — Will Smith
11. The scariest moment is always just before you start. — Stephen King
12. Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. — Paulo Coelho
13. If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal. — Paulo Coelho
14. You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain. — Miyamoto Musashi
15. You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. — A. A. Milne
16. Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid? That is the only time a man can be brave. — George R. R. Martin
17. Fear cuts deeper than swords. — George R. R. Martin
18. The most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it? It’s the next one. Always the next step. — Brandon Sanderson

Moral Courage: Standing for What’s Right

The hardest bravery isn’t physical — it’s standing alone for what is right when it’s easier to stay quiet.

1. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. — J. K. Rowling
2. It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. — Mark Twain
3. Being a hero doesn’t mean you’re invincible. It just means that you’re brave enough to stand up and do what’s needed. — Rick Riordan
4. No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil. — E. M. Forster
5. Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
6. I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear. — Rosa Parks
7. When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful. — Malala Yousafzai
8. Truth is powerful and it prevails. — Sojourner Truth
9. Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. — Golda Meir
10. One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world. — Malala Yousafzai
11. I raise up my voice — not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. — Malala Yousafzai
12. It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference. — Wangari Maathai
13. We are the change that we seek. — Barack Obama
14. Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
15. I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves. — Harriet Tubman
16. If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman. — Margaret Thatcher
17. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. — Jane Goodall
18. When they go low, we go high. — Michelle Obama

Courage in Adversity

For the days when life pushes back, these words on enduring hardship and refusing to quit will steady you.

1. F-E-A-R has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. The choice is yours. — Zig Ziglar
2. You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. — Maya Angelou
3. You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger. — John C. Maxwell
4. Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. — Bruce Lee
5. Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. — Sun Tzu
6. Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for. — Mark Manson
7. Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it. — Veronica Roth
8. It requires more courage to suffer than to die. — Napoleon Bonaparte
9. Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. — Lance Armstrong
10. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them. — Washington Irving
11. Suffering is a test. That’s all it is. Suffering is the true test of life. — David Goggins
12. Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. — Brené Brown
13. I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk. — Oprah Winfrey
14. Everything you want is on the other side of fear. — Jack Canfield
15. Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart. — Roy T. Bennett
16. It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform. — Roy T. Bennett
17. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. — Neale Donald Walsch
18. Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new. — Brian Tracy

Leaders Who Dared

History’s boldest leaders all shared one trait: the willingness to act when others hesitated.

1. We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. — Martin Luther King Jr.
2. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. — Theodore Roosevelt
3. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. — John F. Kennedy
4. One man with courage is a majority. — Thomas Jefferson
5. Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. — Abraham Lincoln
6. Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much. — Theodore Roosevelt
7. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — Martin Luther King Jr.
8. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. — Martin Luther King Jr.
9. Courage is not limited to the battlefield. — Theodore Roosevelt
10. Courage, hard work, self-mastery, and intelligent effort are all essential to successful life. — Theodore Roosevelt
11. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others. — Winston Churchill
12. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America. — John Lewis
13. Every great dream begins with a dreamer. — Harriet Tubman
14. Courage is found in unlikely places. — J. R. R. Tolkien
15. There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for. — J. R. R. Tolkien
16. Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. — Calvin Coolidge
17. Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount. — Clare Boothe Luce
18. One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. — Maya Angelou

Ancient Wisdom on Courage

Two thousand years ago, philosophers were already mapping the anatomy of courage. Their insights still hold.

1. Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. — Lao Tzu
2. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. — Seneca
3. To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage. — Confucius
4. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. — Søren Kierkegaard
5. The best fighter is never angry. — Lao Tzu
6. He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy. — Socrates
7. If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. — Epictetus
8. The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you. — Epictetus
9. Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater. — Epictetus
10. It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. — Epictetus
11. Only the educated are free. — Epictetus
12. A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope. — Epictetus
13. Courage is the first virtue that makes all other virtues possible. — Aristotle
14. The obstacle is the way. — Ryan Holiday
15. The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. — Joseph Campbell
16. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. — Joseph Campbell
17. The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity. — Rollo May
18. Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging. — Joseph Campbell

Modern Thinkers on Bravery

Today’s psychologists and writers on what it really means to be brave in ordinary life.

1. A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. — Joseph Campbell
2. Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. — Rollo May
3. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. — Viktor Frankl
4. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. — Albert Camus
5. I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become. — Carl Jung
6. The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. — Joseph Campbell
7. Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end. — Robin Sharma
8. I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. — Og Mandino
9. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. — Marianne Williamson
10. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. — Marianne Williamson
11. All great changes are preceded by chaos. — Deepak Chopra
12. Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. — Brené Brown
13. You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot have both. — Brené Brown
14. Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength. — Sara Blakely
15. Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start. — Simon Sinek
16. A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. — Tim Ferriss
17. Courage is contagious. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better. — Brené Brown
18. Ditch the dream and be a doer. — Shonda Rhimes

Poets on Bravery

Poets distill courage into a few unforgettable lines. Here are the finest.

1. We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. — Emily Dickinson
2. Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you. — Walt Whitman
3. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. — William Ernest Henley
4. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. — Dylan Thomas
5. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. — Anaïs Nin
6. Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. — Rumi
7. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. — Khalil Gibran
8. What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? — Langston Hughes
9. Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother. — Khalil Gibran
10. For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it. — Amanda Gorman
11. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. — Robert Frost
12. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. — Alfred Lord Tennyson
13. Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form. — Rumi
14. Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit. — Baltasar Gracián
15. Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment. — Napoleon Bonaparte
16. Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. — Unknown
17. The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men. — Minot J. Savage
18. Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul. — Michel de Montaigne

Storytellers on Courage

From novels to fantasy epics, storytellers have given us some of the most stirring words on bravery.

1. I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. — Jimmy Dean
2. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. — William Arthur Ward
3. Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
5. Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. Do the thing and you will have the power. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
8. A tart temper never mellows with age. — Washington Irving
9. Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you’re scared to death. — Harold Wilson
10. There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. — Maya Angelou
11. If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. — Toni Morrison
12. Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. — Virginia Woolf
13. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde
14. Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. — George Bernard Shaw
15. Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours. — Richard Bach
16. In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity. — Sun Tzu
17. Be like water making its way through cracks. — Bruce Lee
18. Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own. — Bruce Lee

More Authors on Bravery

More masterful lines from writers who understood the human heart under pressure.

1. Oh, the places you’ll go! — Dr. Seuss
2. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. — Dr. Seuss
3. It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then. — Lewis Carroll
4. A goal without a plan is just a wish. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
5. Journey before destination. — Brandon Sanderson
6. Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. — Neil Gaiman
7. Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed. — G. K. Chesterton
8. Don’t panic. — Douglas Adams
9. I am no bird; and no net ensnares me. — Charlotte Brontë
10. All for one and one for all. — Alexandre Dumas
11. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. — Muriel Strode
12. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. — Raymond Lindquist
13. Courage is a love affair with the unknown. — Osho
14. Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke. — Benjamin Disraeli
15. Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. — Robert A. Heinlein
16. Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. — Victor Hugo
17. The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. — Mignon McLaughlin
18. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you. — Mary Tyler Moore

Modern Voices of Courage

Contemporary voices — coaches, thinkers, and doers — on daring greatly right now.

1. The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. — M. Scott Peck
2. You’ll see it when you believe it. — Wayne Dyer
3. Don’t make a habit out of choosing what feels good over what’s actually good for you. — Eric Thomas
4. You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential. — David Goggins
5. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. — Admiral William McRaven
6. We can do hard things. — Glennon Doyle
7. Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. — Oprah Winfrey
8. You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather. — Pema Chödrön
9. You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. — Jon Kabat-Zinn
10. Becoming is better than being. — Carol Dweck
11. The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing. — Seth Godin
12. Say yes, and you’ll figure it out afterward. — Tina Fey
13. Life is difficult. — M. Scott Peck
14. When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful. — Eric Thomas
15. Discipline equals freedom. — Jocko Willink
16. You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. — Zig Ziglar
17. Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life. — Shannon L. Alder

Icons of Courage

Athletes, explorers, and public figures whose lives became lessons in fearlessness.

1. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. — Eleanor Roosevelt
2. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. — Helen Keller
3. Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death. — Omar Bradley
4. Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow. — Dan Rather
5. True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is. — Norman Schwarzkopf
6. Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men. — George S. Patton
7. The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. — Coco Chanel
8. Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. — Amelia Earhart
9. Never do things others can do and will do, if there are things others cannot do or will not do. — Amelia Earhart
10. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses. — Kobe Bryant
11. A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. — Jackie Robinson
12. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. — John Wooden
13. The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that’s where it’s at. — Jesse Owens
14. A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. — Christopher Reeve
15. I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall. — Serena Williams
16. If I fail, I try again, and again, and again. — Nick Vujicic
17. Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of. — Bethany Hamilton
18. I just wish people would realize that anything’s possible if you try. — Terry Fox

Innovators and Dreamers

The builders and inventors who risked everything on an idea the world wasn’t ready for.

1. A man who dared to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. — Charles Darwin
2. If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. — Isaac Newton
3. Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. — Stephen Hawking
4. If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later! — Richard Branson
5. I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying. — Jeff Bezos
6. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future. — Walt Disney
7. However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. — Stephen Hawking
8. It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. — Bill Gates
9. I think the things you regret most in life are the things you didn’t do. — Steve Jobs
10. Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared. — Eddie Rickenbacker
11. Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you. — Bethany Hamilton
12. Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway. — Eleanor Roosevelt
13. I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done. — Lucille Ball
14. Pressure is a privilege. — Billie Jean King
15. It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success. — Lionel Messi
16. Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth. — Mike Tyson
17. Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been. — Alan Alda
18. Courage is being yourself every day in a world that tells you to be someone else. — Unknown

Courage on Screen and in Scripture

Memorable lines from beloved films, plus timeless verses on strength and courage.

1. It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. — Rocky Balboa (film)
2. A day may come when the courage of men fails, but it is not this day. — Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (film)
3. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. — Hermione Granger, Harry Potter (film)
4. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. — Sirius Black, Harry Potter (film)
5. Adventure is out there! — Up (film)
6. Our fate lives within us. You only have to be brave enough to see it. — Merida, Brave (film)
7. Have courage and be kind. — Cinderella (film)
8. With great power comes great responsibility. — Uncle Ben, Spider-Man (film)
9. Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. — Dead Poets Society (film)
10. Going in one more round when you don’t think you can, that’s what makes all the difference in your life. — Rocky Balboa (film)
11. Do the next right thing. — Anna, Frozen II (film)
12. Fairy tales can come true. You gotta make ’em happen, it all depends on you. — Tiana, The Princess and the Frog (film)
13. The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it. — Rafiki, The Lion King (film)
14. Remember who you are. — Mufasa, The Lion King (film)
15. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. — Bible, Psalm 31:24
16. The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. — Bible, Proverbs 28:1
17. I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people. — Maya Angelou

How to Use This Courage Quote of the Day Collection

Pick one quote each morning and carry it with you through the day — write it on a sticky note, set it as your phone wallpaper, or read it aloud before a difficult conversation. Courage is a practice, and a daily quote is one of the simplest ways to train it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good courage quote of the day?

A timeless choice is Eleanor Roosevelt’s line: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” It captures the heart of bravery — acting despite fear, not without it.

Who said “courage is grace under pressure”?

Ernest Hemingway. The short sentence has become one of the most quoted definitions of courage in the English language.

What is the difference between courage and fearlessness?

Fearlessness is the absence of fear; courage is action in spite of fear. As Mark Twain put it, courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of it.

How can a daily courage quote help me?

Reading one brave line each morning primes your mindset for bold decisions. Over time, this small habit builds courage as a practiced skill rather than a rare trait.

More to Explore

• Courage Quotes: Timeless Lines on Bravery
• Strength Quotes to Build Inner Power
• Perseverance Quotes for Tough Times
• Failure Quotes: Lessons from Falling Down
• Success Quotes to Fuel Your Ambition
• Leadership Quotes on Bold Decisions
• Hope Quotes to Light Dark Days
• Wisdom Quotes for Clear Thinking
• Life Quotes on Living Boldly
• Love Quotes: The Courage to Love Deeply
• Happiness Quotes for a Braver Life
• Change Quotes: Dare to Begin Again
• Confidence Quotes to Trust Yourself

For a deeper dive into the psychology of bravery, see the Wikipedia article on courage.