Henry Van Dyke Quotes

It is true that I must run a great risk; no gallant action was ever accomplished without danger.

Courage in danger is half the battle.

Calculation never made a hero.

Danger gleams like sunshine to a brave man's eyes.

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.

I wasn't heroic because I was never in danger.

A coward turns away, but a brave man's choice is danger.

Heroing is one of the shortest-lived professions there is.

Not only do the brave get killed, but the brave have a better chance of it.

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 man is not ready to risk his life, where is his dignity?

You remember that I told you it was safer not to know. But,' he went on, as his hands moved wuth their sure and practiced motion, 'I will tell you just a little, because you were so very brave.' Brave?' Annemarie asked, surprised. 'No, I wasn't. I was very frightened.' You risked your life.' But I didn't even think about that! I was only thinking of-' He interrupted her,smiling. 'That's all that brave means-not thinking about the dangers. Just thinking about what you must do. Of course you were frightened. I was too, today. But you kept your mind on what you had to do. So did I.

Besides we are men, and after all it is our business to risk our lives.

It is better to meet danger than to wait for it.

What is courage? Courage is the willingness to risk failure...There is only one danger I find in life, and that, indeed, is a real one. You may take too many precautions.

The devotion of the greatest is to encounter risk and danger, and play dice for death.

You are never freer than in that moment when you decide to expose yourself to sniper fire.

You have to be afraid for it to count as bravery.

The man who is not afraid of danger is not a hero, but a psychopath.

Danger, the spur of all great minds.

I don't think of myself as offbeat and weird. As a kid, I saw myself as the type of guy who would run into a burning building to save the baby.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

You know, I'm no different from a fireman. You got to run into a fire no matter how big the blaze is.

Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.