Quotes about fear

Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.

— John Paul II

Every day I run scared. That's the only way I can stay ahead.

— John Johnson

Become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.

— Lady Bird Johnson

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

— Samuel Johnson

Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil; but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize

— Samuel Johnson

Fear is the sand in the machinery of life.

— Eli Stanley Jones

My fear... is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

— Franz Kafka

Scruples, temptations, and fears, and cutting perplexities of the heart, are often the lot of the most excellent persons.

— Thomas Kempis

Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens.

— John Maynard Keynes

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

— Søren Kierkegaard

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.

— Billie Jean King

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

Where fear is present, wisdom cannot be.

— Lucius C. Lactantius

Favor and disgrace are like fear. Favor is in a higher place, and disgrace in a lower place. When you win them you are like being in fear, and when you lose them you are also like being in fear. So favor and disgrace are like fear.

— Lao-Tzu

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

— Abraham Lincoln

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.

— Titus Livy

I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.

— Audre Lorde

Fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind.

— H. P. Lovecraft

Great fear is concealed under daring.

— F. L. Lucan

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

— Niccolo Machiavelli

The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.

— Shirley Maclaine

Only he who can say, The Lord is my strength, can say, Of whom shall I be afraid?

— Alexander Maclaren

It is an old psychological axiom that constant exposure to the object of fear immunizes against the fear.

— Maxwell Maltz

Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.

— Orison Swett Marden

God incarnate is the end of fear; and the heart that realizes that He is in the midst... will be quiet in the middle of alarm.

— F. B. Meyer

There is nothing strange about fear: no matter in what guise it presents itself it is something with which we are all so familiar that when a man appears who is without it we are at once enslaved by him.

— Henry Miller

The thing I fear most is fear.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

I know what I am fleeing from, but not what I am in search of.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

I have a fear of failure.

— Joe Montana

Depression, gloom, pessimism, despair, discouragement, these slay ten human beings to every one murdered by typhoid, influenza, diabetes or pneumonia. If tuberculosis is the great white plague, then fear is the great black plague.

— Gilbert Murray

An anthill increases by accumulation. Medicine is consumed by distribution. That which is feared lessens by association. This is the thing to understand.

— Siddha Nagarjuna

There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.

— Jawaharlal Nehru

Fear is the mother of morality.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Whenever we're afraid, its because we don't know enough. If we understood enough, we would never be afraid.

— Earl Nightingale

How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.

— Florence Nightingale

You can't underestimate the power of fear.

— Patricia Nixon

People react to fear, not love --they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.

— Richard M. Nixon

No Fear.

— No Fear Company

Half the things that people do not succeed in are through fear of making the attempt.

— James Northcote

To hate and to fear is the be psychologically ill... it is, in fact, the consuming illness of our time.

— Harry A. Overstreet

You can get something done in a short time with fear, but in the long run it just doesn't pay off.

— Wendell Parsons

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to your fear.

— George S. Patton

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.

— George S. Patton

The timid are afraid before the danger, the cowardly while in danger, and the courageous after danger.

— Jean Paul

Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.

— Michael Pritchard

He who fears to suffer, suffers from fear.

— Proverb

That fear may reach all, punish but few.

— Proverb

A scalded cat dreads cold water.

— Proverb

People always make the wolf more formidable than he is.

— French Proverb

Fear the man who fears you.

— Hasidic Proverb

Fear only two: God, and the man who has no fear of God.

— Hasidic Proverb

He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him.

— Moorish Proverb

Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.

— Swedish Proverb

There are moments when everything goes well, but don't be frightened.

— Jules Renard

Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby.

— Ruth E. Renkel

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by each 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

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Fear makes men believe the worst.

— Quintus Curtius Rufus

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

That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.

— George Santayana

Humans, with the capacities of higher-order thinking, can overcome limiting behaviors and fears.

— Paul R. Scheele

If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.

— Robert H. Schuller

Do what you fear and fear disappears.

— David J. Schwartz

Where the fear is, happiness is not.

— Seneca

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

— Seneca

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

— Seneca

Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.

— William Shakespeare

The best safety lies in fear.

— William Shakespeare

Fearless minds climb soonest into crowns.

— William Shakespeare

In time we hate that which we often fear.

— William Shakespeare

Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed.

— William Shakespeare

Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.

— Frederick Smith

To him who is in fear everything rustles.

— Sophocles

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.

— Julia Sorel

Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.

— James Stephens

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

The worst nightmare I ever had about Vietnam was that I had to go back. I woke up in a sweat, in total terror.

— Oliver Stone

I can say, I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and awful and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won't do that because it makes me uncomfortable. Or I could say get used to being uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable doing something that's risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?

— Barbara Streisand

Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.

— Publilius Syrus

Even the bravest men are frightened by sudden terrors.

— Publius Cornelius Tacitus

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live

— Dorothy Thompson

Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.

— Virgil Thomson

People die of fright and live of confidence.

— Henry David Thoreau

Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.

— Source Unknown

The innocent are free from fear, but the guilty always the dread of punishment before their eyes.

— Source Unknown

Fear is a habit; so is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resignation. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves: I can!! and I will!!

— Source Unknown

Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.

— Source Unknown

All men have fears, but the Brave put down their fears and go forward. Sometimes to Death, but always to Victory.

— Source Unknown

Fear is what kills us.

— Source Unknown

He who knows self as the enjoyer of the honey from the flowers of the senses, ever present within, ruler of time, goes beyond fear. For this self is supreme!

— Veda Upanishads

Fear is proof of a degenerate mind.

— Virgil

Fear is proof of a low born soul.

— Virgil

To live with fear and not be afraid is the final test of maturity.

— Edward Weeks

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. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

— Marianne Williamson

Fear God and you need not fear anyone else.

— Woodrow T. Wilson

A man's doubts and fears are his worst enemies.

— William Wrigley Jr.

Less base the fear of death than fear of life.

— Edward Young

Action conquers fear.

— Peter Nivio Zarlenga

Sometimes we are scared of our own shadow, and our imaginations get the best of us.

— James Dye