13 Sept 2011

Lucky 13: Women Writers about Courage.


"It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else."
- Erma Bombeck

"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. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
- Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We cannot be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."
- Maya Angelou

"Everyone has talent. What's rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads."
- Erica Jong

"One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements."
- Anaïs Nin

"Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want."
- Ayn Rand

"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."
- Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)

"[Responsibility to yourself] means, therefore, the courage to be "different"...The difference between a life lived actively, and a life of passive drifting and dispersal of energies, is an immense difference. Once we begin to feel committed to our lives, responsible to ourselves, we can never again be satisfied with the old, passive way."
- Adrienne Rich

"With enough courage, you can do without a reputation."
- Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind)

"There must be courage; there must be no awe. There must be criticism, for humor, to my mind, is encapsulated in criticism. There must be a disciplined eye and a wild mind...There must be a magnificent disregard of your reader, for if he cannot follow you, there is nothing you can do about it."
- Dorothy Parker

"HELPED are those who find the courage to do at least one small thing each day to help the existence of another--plant, animal, river, or human being. They shall be joined by a multitude of the timid."
- Alice Walker

"I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn."
- Anne Frank

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Photo 'Jumping in the waves' by TheGiantVermin, available under a creative commons license. © 2004, TheGiantVermin.
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11 comments:

  1. That Jane Austen quote is me in two sentences. :)

    Great courage quotes -- as always.

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  2. "One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements."
    - Anaïs Nin

    Perfect.

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  3. L.G.: I recognised it as well. My courage is sometimes delayed by a few seconds, but in those situations it rises for sure. :-)

    Karen: that one was very special to me as well. :-)

    Suze: =)

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  4. Thank you for these - powerful quotes and many of them spoke directly to me.

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  5. Some great quotes. My favourite is Mary Anne Radmachers' small voice promising to try again tomorrow.

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  6. yep, following your talent needs courage!

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  7. Rosemary: you're very welcome. Thanks for stopping by! :-)

    Rosalind: I really wanted to add that one. I often think of courage as a big and bold feeling or gesture, but in reality most of the time it's not.

    DEZZY: absolutely! :-)

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  8. You picked a great quote to end the list with. Young Anne Frank was such a beautiful example of courage.
    xoRobyn

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  9. Fabulous quotes, especially the first one. It does take courage.

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  10. Talli: yet another interesting aspect of writing. :-)

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