Moral Courage Quotes - Page 4

• We must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors. As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; We will not surrender for it, now or ever. We are Americans.

  Ronald Reagan

  Sacrifice, Men, Practice

  First Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1981

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• Here's an experiment: For one whole day think, speak, and act exactly as you would if you were absolutely convinced of the truth of the statements that God has all power and infinite intelligence, and that His nature is infinite goodness and love. To think in this manner all day will be the most difficult thing, because thought is so subtle. To speak in accordance with these truths will be easier, if you are vigilant. To act in accordance with them will be the easiest part, although it may require much in the way of moral courage.

  Emmet Fox

  God, Thinking, Infinite Intelligence

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• Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.

  Wendell Phillips

  Animal, Bravery, Accountability

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• The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Courage, Navy, Virtue

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, 1595.

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• The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness and pain. .. YOU be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone. Have the moral courage to be a light for others to follow.

  Thomas S. Monson

  Pain, Light, Heartache

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• The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Motivational, Perseverance

  The Sub-Treasury Speech Springfield, Illinois December 26, 1839

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• At last an authentic voice from Saudi Arabia. Al-Mohaimeed has written a remarkable, rhythmic, genuine novel. Wolves of the Crescent Moon throbs with sensuality and moral courage, as if it didn't take place in a society that denies the tick of the heart.

  Hanan al-Shaykh

  Heart, Moon, Voice

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• Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

  Rollo May

  Courage, Creative, Patterns

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.21, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Few things are more damaging to our democracy than a military officer who doesn't have the moral courage to stand up for what's right or the moral fiber to step aside when circumstances dictate.

  Michael Mullen

  Military, Moral Fiber, Democracy

  USNA Commencement Address in Annapolis, Maryland, May 23, 2008.

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• It is highly significant and indeed almost a rule, that moral courage has its source in such identification through one's own sensitivity with suffering of one's fellow human beings." (p. 16-17)

  Rollo May

  Suffering, Moral, Significant

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• Years ago I was asked this question: Do terrorists fear anything? I said, 'I suspect they would fear a morally strong America.' They would know that a morally strong America would not be dislodged. You can always appeal to a point of vulnerability which would break a people up. [Terrorists] don't fear so much the weaponry as the moral courage, and I think a morally strong America would be intimidating to them.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Strong, Thinking, America

  Source: www.virtueonline.org

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• Intimacy, says the phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard, is the highest value. I resist this statement at first. What about artistic achievement, or moral courage, or heroism, or altruistic acts, or work in the cause of social change? What about wealth or accomplishment? And yet something about it rings true, finally—that what we want is to be brought into relationship, to be inside, within. Perhaps it’s true that nothing matters more to us than that.

  Mark Doty

  Accomplishment, Achievement, Heroism

  Mark Doty (2002). “Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy”, p.6, Beacon Press

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• We have no proof that Socrates ever existed. We only know from witnesses to his life that he did. Like Jesus, he never wrote anything down. It doesn't matter to me whether he did or not exist because we have his teachings, his method of thinking, and his extreme intellectual and moral courage.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Jesus, Teaching, Thinking

  Source: www.wanliss.com

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• In this work I have received the opposition of a number of men who only advocate the unobtainable because the immediately possible is beyond their moral courage, administrative ability, and their political prescience.

  John Burns

  Men, Numbers, Political

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• Christianity without the cross is nothing. The cross was the fitting close of a life of rejection, scorn and defeat. But in no true sense have these things ceased or changed. Jesus is still He whom man despiseth, and the rejected of men. The world has never admired Jesus, for moral courage is yet needed in every one of its high places by him who would "confess" Christ. The "offense" of the cross, therefore, has led men in all ages to endeavor to be rid of it, and to deny that it is the power of God in the world.

  Lord Kelvin

  Jesus, Men, Rejection

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• There are two sure ways to fail: never get started and quit before you succeed. Many companies promote the language of risk-taking and innovation but are so concerned with short term profit goals that their culture discourages innovation (trying new things) and abandons promising projects too soon. It shouldn't require exceptional moral courage to try new things and stick with them.

  Michael Josephson

  Two, Goal, Risk

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• The public is tired of politicians professing certain beliefs and not acting on those beliefs. They want elected officials who have the moral courage to do what they will say they will do when they're running for election.

  Colonel Tom Parker

  Running, Tired, Acting

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• It seemed incredible to me, that physical courage should be so commonplace and revered, while moral courage . . . is so rare and despised.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Moral, Incredibles, Should

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• In America, the traditional routes to black identity have hardly been normal. Suicide (disappearance by imitation, or willed extinction), violence (hysterical religiosity, crime, armed revolt), and exemplary moral courage; none of these is normal.

  June Jordan

  Suicide, America, Black

  June Jordan (1981). “Civil Wars”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

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• Everybody Moral courage is a virtue of higher cast and nobler origin than physical. It springs from a consciousness of virtue and renders a man, in the pursuit or defense of right, superior to the fear of reproach, opposition, or contempt.

  Samuel Griswold Goodrich

  Spring, Men, Defense

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• When I today ask myself whence I got the moral courage, for it takes moral courage to make a move (or form a plan) running counter to all tradition, I think I may say in answer, that it was only my intense preoccupation with the problem of the blockade which helped me to do so.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Running, Moving, Thinking

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• Black! Black! Black! I am proud of being a Negro. Nor have I ever tried to beg tolerance from anyone. Superiority is not proved by color, but by the brain, by education, by willpower, by moral courage.

  Jose Celso Barbosa

  Education, Color, Justice

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• If we emphasize the life and works of our greatest contributors . . . people will come to realize that moral courage is bravery of the highest type, and America will be called the "Champion of Peace."

  Spark Matsunaga

  Courage, Peace, America

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• Once I had all the facts in, I found I didn't have the immoral courage to pull the caper. So I wrote it as a story. As a teenager, I didn't have any skills for writing as such, so it came out in 1500 words.

  Theodore Sturgeon

  Courage, Teenager, Writing

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• Not mythical material productive forces, but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs. What is needed to stop the trend toward socialism and despotism is common-sense and moral courage.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Ideas, Common Sense, Liberty

  Ludwig Von Mises (1947). “Planned Chaos”, p.83, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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