FEAR QUOTES
quotations about fear
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
EDMUND BURKE
On the Sublime and Beautiful
Fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.
WILLIAM GOLDING
Lord of the Flies
Early fear was felt cellularly and was indeed real. Defensive postures were necessary, but defenses generalize cellularly in adulthood and do not expire. It takes conscious work to undo them. Ironically, as long as we keep using defenses, we actually maintain the original force of the fear.
DAVID RICHO
When Love Meets Fear
Father, O father! what do we here
In this land of unbelief and fear?
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Land of Dreams
The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.
FRANK SINATRA
quoted in The Way You Wear Your Hat
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT
First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1933
Fear is a great poseur. Men especially are loath to admit that they're scared, even to themselves. Instead they convert anxiety into more acceptable feelings (anger, usually).
RALPH KEYES
The Courage to Write
He who fears not, is to be feared.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
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
An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish
Fear has never helped anybody make good choices. It leads to clinging when we should be walking.
HARRIET LERNER
"The Top 10 Reasons Women Re-Marry The Wrong Guys", Huffington Post, July 7, 2012
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
You Learn by Living
Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
EDMUND BURKE
speech on the Petition of the Unitarians, May 11, 1792
A mind that is afraid withers away; it cannot function properly.
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
On Fear
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 Hurin
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
NELSON MANDELA
Autobiography
You never had to be afraid of anything that was afraid of you.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Narcissus in Chains
Social control is best managed through fear.
MICHAEL CRICHTON
State of Fear
Fear sells. Fear makes money. The countless companies and consultants in the business of protecting the fearful from whatever they may fear know it only too well. The more fear, the better the sales.
DANIEL GARDNER
The Science of Fear
If someone is living in fear--whether it's fear of the burglar on your block or the fanatical dictator half a planet away--it's because she doesn't understand how the game of security is played. She longs for a fortress, for a fairy-tale solution that will work forever after. It's a perfectly reasonable longing, and its because she thinks about security in terms of absolutes or magnifies her level of risk based on her experiences with the media, both news and fiction. There's a smart way to be scared. It involves moving beyond fear and thinking sensibly about trade-offs. It involves looking beyond the newspaper headlines and getting a feel for the numbers: a feel for the threats and risks, and the efficacy of the countermeasures. It involves making sensible security trade-offs. The smart way to be scared is to be streetwise.
BRUCE SCHNEIER
Beyond Fear
Cowards die many times before their deaths
The valiant never taste of death but once.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Julius Caesar