50 Bravery Quotes to Help You Push Through Fear

By Stephanie Kirby | Published July 2, 2023

Find the courage to overcome your fears with these empowering bravery quotes!

According to Merriam-webster.com, bravery means “the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty” or “the state of being brave: courage.”

There are many times in life when we need to exercise bravery, including:

Admitting you were wrong – This is even tougher when you must do this in front of others
Standing up for your beliefs – Don’t bow down to others’ beliefs; yours have as much value as anyone else’s
Saying No – You do not need to agree to everything, and although it can be hard to say no, especially to someone you respect, say no when it’s appropriate or necessary

Read these bravery quotes to help you find strength in these relatable situations.

Top Bravery Quotes

These quotes will motivate you to be braver in your life.

1. “Fortune and love favor the brave.” — Ovid

2. “He who is brave is free.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca

3. “It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.” — Aesop

4. “Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.” — Indira Gandhi

5. “Let bravery be thy choice, but not bravado.” — Menander

6. “Like timidity, bravery is also contagious.” — Premchand

7. “The best hearts are ever the bravest.” — Laurence Sterne

8. “Danger gleams like sunshine to a brave man’s eyes.” — Euripides

9. “Bravery never goes out of fashion.” — William Makepeace Thackeray

10. “A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.” — Veronica Roth

Bravery Quotes to Inspire You to Action

If you need a little courage, these quotes will encourage you to move forward and choose bravery.

11. “If you want to change things, it requires bravery.” — Naftali Bennett

12. “You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” — Mary Tyler Moore

13. “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” — Paulo Coelho

14. “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” — John Wayne

15. “No man can be brave who considers pain the greatest evil of life.” — Cicero

16. “Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.” — Franklin P. Jones

17. “You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.” — Dolly Parton

18. “Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.” — John Gay

19. “Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.” — Emma Donoghue

20. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” — Stephen King

Courage and Bravery Quotes to Live By

Many famous people throughout history have shared their thoughts and opinions on what it takes to be brave.

21. “Tell a man that he is brave, and you help him become so.” — Thomas Carlyle

22. “No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.” — Julius Caesar

23. “I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.” — Catherine the Great

24. “The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.” — Ronald Reagan

25. “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” — Mahatma Gandhi

26. “All brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne

27. “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.” — Helen Keller

28. “Dare to be brave today, and trust that when you extend your wings, you will fly.” — Mary E. DeMuth

29. “A true knight is fuller of bravery in the midst than in the beginning of danger.” — Sir P. Sidney

30. “Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.” — P.T. Barnum

Memorable Bravery Quotes to Serve as a Reminder

Write these quotes down and display them around your house as a reminder of what bravery looks like.

31. “Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.” — Abraham Lincoln

32. “The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the sum of his own works.” — Miguel de Cervantes

33. “Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

34. “Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.” — Wendell Phillips

35. “It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.” — Georges Bernanos

36. “Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.” — Alan Alda

37. “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.” — Aristotle

38. “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” — Thomas Paine

39. “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” — Billy Graham

40. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on—it is going on when you don’t have strength.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

Bravery Quotes to Encourage You to Take Action

If you’re still struggling with courage, these bravery quotes can help.

41. “Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.” — Bear Grylls

42. “Few men are born brave. Many become so through training and force of discipline.” — Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus

43. “Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave, let him obey his conscience.” — James Freeman Clarke

44. “The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about is happiness enough to get their work done.” — Thomas Carlyle

45. “Brave means that we will try to create something for ourselves. Brave means never going backward when we can go forward.” — David Wagner

46. “Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

47. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” — Mary Anne Radmacher

48. “Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.” — Thucydides

49. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela

50. “The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle—the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.” — Douglas MacArthur