78 Inspiring Quotes About Fear To Give You Courage
Overcome the fear that's holding you back in life.
YourTango We've all been paralyzed by our fears at some point in our lives, and when that happens, the best inspirational quotes about fear can help you find your courage again.
If you want to thrive, and not just survive, you simply must face your fears.
We often get stuck when we think those things we're most afraid of can't be overcome. But no matter how bad your anxiety may be, most of the time, the anxious voice telling you it can't be done is just plain wrong.
When it comes to managing fears, those of us with a fixed mindset like this might believe our fears are here to stay no matter what, but growth-oriented people understand knows that fear is an obstacle you have to face in order to experience the best life has to offer. Facing your fears is an absolute must for anyone who hopes to get through life with no regrets (or not many).
If fear and doubt are getting the best of you, these inspiring quotes about fear and courage will help you get yourself back on track to do what needs to be done.
78 Inspirational Fear Quotes
1. "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." — Joseph Campbell
2. "People living deeply have no fear of death.” — Anais Nin
3. "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." — Nelson Mandela
4. "If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles." — Sun Tzu
5. "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." — Yoda
6. "Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it." — Judy Blume
7. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,''Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world." ― Marianne Williamson, "A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of 'A Course in Miracles'"
8. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ― Plato
9. . "Do one thing every day that scares you." — Eleanor Roosevelt
10. "What we fear most is usually what we need to do." — Tim Ferriss
11. "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." — Rosa Parks
12. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” ― Marie Curie
13. “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” — Bertrand Russell
14. “Being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. Being brave means you are scared, really scared, badly scared, and you do the right thing anyway." — Neil Gaiman
15. "There comes a time when you have to plant your feet, look your fear in the face, and say: 'You don't get to control me anymore!'" — Mandy Hale
16. "What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?" — e.h.
17. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
18. “Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.” — Karl Augustus Menninger
19. "Until you cross the bridge of your insecurities, you can't begin to explore the possibilities." — Tim Fargo
20. "What you resist persists." — Carl Jung
21. "Fear is an idea-crippling, experience-crushing, success-stalling inhibitor inflicted only by yourself." — Stephanie Melish
22. "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." — Arthur Ashe
23. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” — Hillel the Elder
24. “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” — Rudyard Kipling
25. "Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts." — H. Jackson Brown Jr., "Life's Little Instruction Book: 511 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life" (often misattributed to Albert Einstein)
26. "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" — Sheryl Sandberg, "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead"
27. “He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.” ― Aristotle
28. "Fears are nothing more than a state of mind." — Napoleon Hill
29. “I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.” — William Allen White
30. “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” — Seneca
31. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” ― Marcus Aurelius
32. “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
33. "The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you." — William Jennings Bryan
34. "In the middle of a difficulty lies opportunity." — Albert Einstein
35. “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.” — Gandhi
36. "The fears you don't face become your limits." — Robin Sharma
37. "Confront your fears, list them, get to know them, and only then will you be able to put them aside and move ahead." — Jerry Gilles
38. "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." — Dale Carnegie
39. “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance." — John Lennon
40. “Who sees all beings in his own self, and his own self in all beings, loses all fear.” — Isha Upanishad
41. “Ignorance is the parent of fear.”― Herman Melville
42. "Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones." — Thich Nhat Hanh
43. “Fear is an insidious and deadly thing. It can warp judgment, freeze reflexes, breed mistakes. Worse, it’s contagious.” ― Jimmy Stewart
44. “Laughter is poison to fear.” — George R.R. Martin
45. “You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.” — Eric Hoffer
46. “Don't be afraid of your fears. They're not there to scare you. They're there to let you know that something is worth it.” ― C. JoyBell C.
47. “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” — Henry David Thoreau
48. "Have no fear of perfection--you'll never reach it." — Salvador Dali
49. "Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold." — Helen Keller
50. "Don't try to be fearless. Just try to prevent fear from making your decisions for you." — Chris Guillebeau
51. "I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship." — Louisa May Alcott
52. "What is a fear of living? It's being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself - for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don't know what you're here to do, then just do some good." — Maya Angelou
53. “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” ― Jim Morrison
54. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. 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 up 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." — Theodore Roosevelt
55. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” — Steve Jobs
56. "The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything." — Eric Hoffer
57. “Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.” ― Emma Donoghue, Room
58. “Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
59. “There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.” — Andre Gide
60. "Apply for that job. Date that person. Buy that plane ticket. Move to that city. Do all the things that scare you, because they're worth it." — Anonymous
61. “Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” — Louis E. Boone
62. “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin
63. “Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Manon, Ballerina
64. “If you’re not willing to risk, you cannot grow. If you cannot grow, you cannot be your best. If you cannot be your best, you cannot be happy. If you cannot be happy, what else is there?” — Les Brown
65. "There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope." — Baruch Spinoza
66. “A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Children of Húrin"
67. “The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
68. “Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile… initially scared me to death.” — Betty Bender
69. “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” ― Audre Lorde
70. "The worst thing you can do is let your insecurities and past experiences push away someone that genuinely cares about you." — Kyle D. Jones
71. “Don't fear, just live right.” — Neal A. Maxwell
72. “Living with fear stops us taking risks, and if you don’t go out on the branch, you’re never going to get the best fruit.” — Sarah Parish
73. “Fear has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’ The choice is yours.” — Zig Ziglar
74. "Let yourself be the person you've secretly always wanted to be." — Troye Sivan
75. "Don't fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” ― Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
76. “Don't be afraid of being scared. To be afraid is a sign of common sense. Only complete idiots are not afraid of anything.” ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel's Game
77. "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do." — Eleanor Roosevelt
78. “Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.” — Unknown
Only by pushing yourself to overcome your fears can you learn new skills, create and maintain healthy, loving relationships, and live your very best life possible. When you decide to face your fear, magical things happens! Remember that even when you fail (as we all do at times), you'll have made important gains in your personal growth you never could have managed if you hadn't tried. New doors will open for you soon!
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Mehruba Chowdhury is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture and relationship topics.