Theme
Courage
Facing fear, taking the risk, acting in spite of the odds.
Every quote here is provenance-checked. AI will happily put a fake quote on a beautiful slide — these are the ones you can actually use, with the right name on them.
Ready for your slide
Verified quotes about courage
Each is traced to a real source and correctly credited. ✓ Free to use = public domain, cleared for commercial reuse. Open one for a paste-ready credit line and its reuse status.
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere”
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing”
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful”
“Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation can never effect a reform”
“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble”
“He has half the deed done who has made a beginning”
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship”
“I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
“I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man”
“I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear”
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it”
“I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing”
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others”
“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am”
“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”
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”
“It is easy to be brave from a safe distance”
“It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll”
“No coward soul is mine, no trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere”
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”
“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear”
“Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future”
“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
“The best way out is always through”
“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams”
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat”
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself”
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”
“These are the times that try men's souls”
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by”
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality”
“Well-behaved women seldom make history”
“When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them”
“A champion is someone who gets up when they can't”
“Adventure is worthwhile in itself”
“Fortune favors the bold”
“Give me liberty, or give me death!”
“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was”
“I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death”
“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back”
“It's kind of fun to do the impossible”
“Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope”
“Never was anything great achieved without danger”
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood”
“The big lesson in life is never be scared of anyone or anything”
“The die is cast”
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”
“You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water”
No public-domain quotes on this theme yet — try another, or use an in-copyright one with attribution.
Don’t get caught out
Commonly shared about courage — but misattributed
Popular courage lines that get pinned on the wrong name. If you use one, credit it correctly.
“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity”
ReallyDon B. Kates Jr. (his sentence, inverted) · not Sigmund Freud
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them”
ReallyNo verified author (falsely credited to Walt Disney)
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”
ReallyUnknown · not Oscar Wilde
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage”
ReallyLao Tzu · not Lao Tzu
“Blood, sweat and tears”
ReallyWinston Churchill
“Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay”
ReallyUnknown — no documented author
“Courage is knowing what not to fear”
ReallyWerner Jaeger
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others”
ReallyWinston Churchill · not Aristotle
“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism”
ReallyOrigin unknown · not Thomas Jefferson
“Do one thing every day that scares you”
ReallyMary Schmich
“Do you feel lucky, punk?”
ReallyHarry Julian Fink, R. M. Fink & Dean Riesner
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten”
ReallyNeil Gaiman
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase”
ReallyMartin Luther King Jr. · not Martin Luther King Jr.
“Fear is the true enemy, the only enemy”
ReallyHerbert Wright · not Sun Tzu
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”
ReallyNicholas Klein · not Mahatma Gandhi
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”
ReallyDrew “Bundini” Brown
“Go ahead, make my day”
ReallyJoseph Stinson, John Milius, or Charles B. Pierce
“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it”
ReallyVincent van Gogh · not Pablo Picasso