Bernard of Clairvaux Quotes

Life is a hard fight, a struggle, a wrestling with the principle of evil, hand to hand, foot to foot. Every inch of the way is disputed. The night is given us to take breath, to pray, to drink deep at the fountain of power. The day, to use the strength which has been given us, to go forth to work with it till the evening.

If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armour, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation.

Be brave and fearless to know that even if you do make a wrong decision, you're making it for a good reason.

The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.

I open the door to the fear landscape room and flip open the small black box that was in my back pocket to see the syringes inside. This is the box I have always used, padded around the needles; it is a sign of something sick inside me, or something brave.

When her body first hit the net, all I registered was a gray blur. I pulled her across it and her hand was small, but warm, and then she stood before me, short and thin and plain and in all ways unremarkable- except that she had jumped first. The stiff had jumped first. Even I didn't jump first. Her eyes were so stern, so insistent. Beautiful.

A brave action is often followed by grief. Do not let my resistance to grief stop the brave action.

Fear not! Stand your ground... the Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.

When I was 10, I beat up the school bully. His arms were in casts. That's what gave me the courage.

Be brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Once you have taken up the spiritual fife, fight! Fight as long as there is any life in you! Even though you know that you are going to be killed, fight till you are killed! Don't die of fright! Die fighting! Don't go down till you are knocked down.

Life is war. That's not all it is. But it is always that. Our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief.

Do one thing that's heroic for you today - big or small - and fear won't define you anymore.

The best heroes in the world are the reluctant ones. Courage isn't fearlessness - it's acting in the face of fear.

We must constantly dare ourselves in the small things, until courage becomes a habit of mind that will serve us when we are unexpectedly tested.

In this world there are two great sources of strength. One rests with those who are not afraid to kill. The other rests with those who are not afraid to love.

The difference between a regular person and a warrior is not that you're not afraid. Hell, I was afraid. I don't want to go into combat with anybody who is not afraid because it's healthy to have fear. But what makes a warrior is the guy who can control that fear, channel it, and actually use it as a weapon.

With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.

We have a history when things are really horrible of wading in when no one else will.

The price of cowardice will only be evil. We shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices.

When someone is fearless, when pain isn't a factor, it's impossible to break his spirit.

I knew from the moment I heard you, the moment I saw the gun and realized that this lovely, petit woman was the executioner, that you would never die waiting for me to save you - that you would save yourself.

We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: none is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father's name.

There are no brave men and cowardly men in the world, my son. There are only brave men. To be born, to live, to die—that takes courage enough in itself, and more than enough. We are all brave men and we are all afraid, and what the world calls a brave man, he too is brave and afraid like the all rest of us. Only he is brave for five minutes longer.