Fearless Quotes: Sourced Quotes About Being Brave
Fearless quotes are lines about acting in spite of fear, and the best-sourced ones come from speeches, memoirs and novels rather than social media. Most of the famous ones say the same thing: courage is not the absence of fear. Every quote below has a named source, and the common misattributions are listed at the end.
Quotes about courage and fear
These are the most frequently searched lines, and all of them are traceable to a book or speech.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”
— Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1994)
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”
— Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), in the chapter epigraph
“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 (1960)
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address, March 4, 1933
Roosevelt’s sentence continues “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” It was about the Depression, not personal bravery, but it is the most quoted line on fear in American speech.
Quotes about being brave when you expect to lose
Some of the best writing on bravery is about acting without a guarantee of winning.
“Courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”
— Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Chapter 11
Atticus says this to Jem after Mrs. Dubose dies. He is explaining her fight to quit morphine before she died, and contrasting real courage with “a man with a gun in his hand.”
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
— Helen Keller, The Open Door (1957)
Misattributed bravery quotes
Several of the most shared lines about courage have no confirmed source.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear” is usually credited to Ambrose Redmoon, a pen name of James Neil Hollingworth, and sometimes to Mandela. Mandela’s own wording is the one quoted above.
“Do one thing every day that scares you” is often credited to Eleanor Roosevelt. It comes from Mary Schmich’s 1997 newspaper column “Wear Sunscreen,” which was later passed around as a Kurt Vonnegut speech. No Roosevelt source has been found.
Using these quotes
For an essay on courage, pair Mandela with Twain. They make nearly the same claim in different centuries, and you can discuss what each adds. For a literature class, Atticus’s line is useful because it defines courage by the odds, not by the fear.
For children, see the sourced lines in growth mindset quotes for kids and inclusion quotes for kids. For students facing a hard first week, first day of school quotes has shorter options.
FAQ
Is there a difference between fearless and brave?
Fearless means without fear. Brave means acting despite fear. Most quotes sold as “fearless” are really about bravery, which is why they keep saying fear is present.
Which fearless quote is short enough for a card?
Helen Keller’s “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” is 11 words and sourced. Twain’s line on resisting fear is shorter.
Who said “courage is not the absence of fear”?
Nelson Mandela wrote a version in Long Walk to Freedom. The Redmoon wording is a separate line, credited to a pen name, from the early 1990s.