Gene Wolfe Quotes

The skin of the coward changes color all the time, he can't get a grip on himself, he can't sit still, he squats and rocks, shifting his weight from foot to foot, his heart racing, pounding inside the fellow's ribs, his teeth chattering. He dreads some grisly death. But the skin of a brave soldier never blanches. He's all control. Tense but no great fear.

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.

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

The next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow.

The nature of a coward is to avoid death. If such a man courts peril there can be only two reasons. Either he is not a coward at all or there is no danger.

If you will fear nothing, think that all things are to be feared.

Before putting yourself in peril, it is necessary to foresee and fear it; but when one is there, nothing remains but to despise it.

Surrendering to fear and allowing ourselves to be paralyzed by peril isn't something most of us can afford to do.

He who fears dangers will not perish by them.

Danger is very real but fear is a choice.

Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening.

I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect - in terror.

Even the bravest men are frightened by sudden terrors.

I understood about fear. And I knew better than anyone in that room what Mouse was capable of. But still I had been raised in a place where to show your fear was worse than cowardice. It was suicide, a sin.

If one is willing to do a thing he is afraid to do, he does not have to ... face a situation fearlessly, and if there is no situation to face; it falls away of its own weight.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?

Why should he who is scared be careful?

Everything is dangerous to him that is afraid of it.

We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear.

- Some men think because they are afraid to do. - There is a difference between fear and caution.

Fear could paralyse. Action was the antidote.

Fear has its uses but cowardice has none.

I think to be courageous, you have to be afraid. For me, it feels very courageous when I go skiing because I'm very, very afraid to ski. It's dangerous! I feel very scared. But when I'm acting, I don't feel very scared.

When I decided to stay in Iraq, I decided to take the fear out of my body and put it into a freezer.

Courage is... the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.