Quotes about fear

Only your mind can produce fear.

— A Course In Miracles

As the ostrich when pursued hideth his head, but forgetteth his body; so the fears of a coward expose him to danger.

— Akhenaton

Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.

— Marian Anderson

An ugly sight, a man who is afraid.

— Jean Anouilh

Come to the edge, He said. They said, We are afraid. Come to the edge, He said. They came. He pushed them... and they flew.

— Guillaume Apollinaire

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.

— Arthur Ashe

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

— Marcus Aurelius

You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.

— Jane Austen

A chicken doesn't stop scratching just because worms are scarce.

— Grandma Axiom

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

— Francis Bacon

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

— Francis Bacon

At man's core there is a voice that wants him never to give in to fear. But if it is true that in general man cannot give in to fear, at the very least he postpones indefinitely the moment when he will have to confront himself with the object of his fear... when he will no longer have the assistance of reason as guaranteed by God, or when he will no longer have the assistance of God such as reason guaranteed. It is necessary to recoil, but it is necessary to leap, and perhaps one only recoils in order to leap better.

— Georges Bataille

Terror is as much a part of the concept of truth as runniness is of the concept of jam. We wouldn't like jam if it didn't, by its very nature, ooze. We wouldn't like truth if it wasn't sticky, if, from time to time, it didn't ooze blood.

— Jean Baudrillard

Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.

— Henry Ward Beecher

Fear is met and destroyed with courage.

— James F. Bell

Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile... initially scared me to death.

— Betty Bender

The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortune, but its fears.

— Arthur Christopher Benson

We must travel in the direction of our fear.

— John Berryman

Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid. [Matthew 14:27]

— Bible

An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.

— Otto Von Bismarck

There are only two forces that unite men -- fear and interest.

— Napoleon Bonaparte

Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest

— Napoleon Bonaparte

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

— Napoleon Bonaparte

There is great beauty in going through life without anxiety or fear. Half our fears are baseless, and the other half discreditable.

— Christian Nevell Bovee

Good men have the fewest fears. He has but one great fear who fears to do wrong; he has a thousand who has overcome it.

— Christian Nevell Bovee

Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.

— Christian Nevell Bovee

First you jump off the cliff and you build wings on the way down.

— Ray Bradbury

The man who has ceased to fear has ceased to care.

— Francis H. Bradley

Fear does not have any special power unless you empower it by submitting to it.

— Les Brown

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.

— Les Brown

When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation -- it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams.

— Les Brown

The fear of being wrong is the prime inhibitor of the creative process.

— Jean Bryant

When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear.

— Buddha

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

— Swami Vivekananda

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

— Edmund Burke

Most fears cannot withstand the test of careful scrutiny and analysis. When we expose our fears to the light of thoughtful examination they usually just evaporate.

— Jack Canfield

The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.

— Thomas Carlyle

If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy

— Dale Carnegie

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it... that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.

— Dale Carnegie

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

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.

— Dale Carnegie

Fear has many eyes and can see things underground.

— Miguel De Cervantes

The timidity of the child or the savage is entirely reasonable; they are alarmed at this world, because this world is a very alarming place. They dislike being alone because it is verily and indeed an awful idea to be alone. Barbarians fear the unknown for the same reason that Agnostics worship it --because it is a fact.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

If you are not concerned about the outcome of a circumstance, you will experience no fear. Whatever the outcome will be, will be, whether you fear it or not.

— Ching Ning Chu

It is better to be frightened now than killed hereafter

— Winston Churchill

Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.

— Marcus T. Cicero

Fear can supplant our real problems only to the extent --unwilling either to assimilate or to exhaust it --we perpetuate it within ourselves like a temptation and enthrone it at the very heart of our solitude.

— E. M. Cioran

He who strikes terror in others is himself continually in fear.

— Claudius Claudianus

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars.

— Arthur Hugh Clough

We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.

— Charles Caleb Colton

How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a specter through the heart, slash off its spectral head, take it by its spectral throat?

— Joseph Conrad

Fear can be conquered. I became a better person and a better football player when I learned that lesson.

— Roger Craig

Just as courage imperils life; fear protects it.

— Leonardo Da Vinci

Comfort zones are plush lined coffins. When you stay in your plush lined coffins, you die.

— Stan Dale

It all changed when I realized I'm not the only one on the planet who's scared. Everyone else is, too. I started asking people, Are you scared, too? You bet your sweet life I am. Aha, so that's the way it is for you, too. We were all in the same boat. That's probably what is so effective at our workshops. When I ask, Who else feels like this? the whole room of hands goes up. People realize they are not the only one who feels that way.

— Stan Dale

A fighter has to know fear.

— Cus D'Amato

The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters.

— Cus D'Amato

The first and great commandment is, Don't let them scare you.

— Elmer Davis

Fear is the biggest motivator.

— Bill Dixon

Fear can be headier than whiskey, once man has acquired a taste for it.

— Donald Downes

My worst fear is that I'll end up living in some run-down duplex on Wilshire wearing pants hiked up to my nipples and muttering under my breath.

— Richard Dreyfuss

He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

— John Dryden

By the time we are women, fear is as familiar to us as air. It is our element. We live in it, we inhale it, we exhale it, and most of the time we do not even notice it. Instead of I am afraid, we say, I don't want to, or I don't know how, or I can't.

— Andrea Dworkin

It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear.

— Freeman Dyson

He without fear is king of the world.

— E. E. Eddison

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

— T. S. Eliot

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear always springs from ignorance.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do the thing we fear, and the death of fear is certain.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Always do what you are afraid to do.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

For it is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship.

— Epictetus

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.

— Henry Ford

Winners are those people who make a habit of doing the things losers are uncomfortable doing.

— Ed Foreman

Those who love to be feared fear to be loved, and they themselves are more afraid than anyone, for whereas other men fear only them, they fear everyone.

— St. Francis De Sales

Fear may come true that which one is afraid of.

— Viktor E. Frankl

There is the fear that we shan't prove worthy in the eyes of someone who knows us at least as well as we know ourselves. That is the fear of God. And there is the fear of Man --fear that men won't understand us and we shall be cut of from them.

— Robert Frost

Most fear stems from sin; to limit one's sins, one must assuredly limit one's fear, thereby bringing more peace to one's spirit.

— Marvin Gaye

Confront your fears, list them, get to know them, and only then will you be able to put them aside and move ahead.

— Jerry Gillies

The truth is that there is no terror untempered by some great moral idea.

— Jean-Luc Godard

It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Fear guides more than gratitude.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid it will never begin.

— Grace Hansen

Fear of success can also be tied into the idea that success means someone else's loss. Some people are unconsciously guilty because they believe their victories are coming at the expense of another.

— Joan C. Harvey

Fear is excitement without breath.

— Robert Heller

Fear is the mind killer

— Frank Herbert

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

— Hermann Hesse

Fears are nothing more than states of mind.

— Napoleon Hill

The most common cause of fear of old age is associated with the possibility of poverty.

— Napoleon Hill

There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.

— Alfred Hitchcock

Fear of becoming a has been keeps some people from becoming anything.

— Eric Hoffer

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.

— Eric Hoffer

Fear of the pain blinds us to the goal of healing. Only by seeing our problems clearly and experiencing them can we do something about them.

— Bob Hoffman

Do what you fear most and you control fear.

— Tom Hopkins

Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.

— Doug Horton

Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.

— Zora Neale Hurston

When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death -- that is heroism.

— Robert Green Ingersoll

I think over again my small adventures, my fears, These small ones that seemed so big. For all the vital things I had to get and to reach. And yet there is only one great thing, The only thing. To live to see the great day that dawns And the light that fills the world.

— Inuit Song

Never take counsel of your fears.

— Stonewall Jackson

In morals what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.

— Anna Jameson

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

— Susan Jeffers