The Keenest Blade is Forged in the Hottest Fire.
Courage is the
ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, injury or intimidation.
There are different kinds of courage. There
is physical courage, the ability to
persevere in the face of physical pain, effort, hardship, injury or death, or
threat of death. And there is moral courage, the
ability to act rightly in the face of social pain, hardship, injury or death -- popular opposition, embarrassment, shame, scandal,
discouragement, ridicule, or retaliation. Moral
courage is perhaps the rarest and most challenging kind of courage there is.
Just as you can get stronger by progressively lifting
heavier and heavier weights, you can cultivate courage by progressively facing
greater and greater fear, pain, or intimidation.
You cannot become stronger by lifting weights that are
easily within your current capacity, nor can you become more courageous by
remaining in your current “comfort zone.”
You must continually challenge your body in order to grow
stronger. And you must continually defy fear and pain and ridicule in order to
become more courageous.
Courage is not the absence
of fear.
It is the conquest
of it.
aac
