quotations about fear
The boundaries between fear and other emotions are not clear-cut. How does fear differ from dread, consternation or surprise? Anger, disgust, hatred and horror all contain elements of fear. Jealousy may be understood as fear of losing one's partner; guilt may be fear of God's punishment; shame may be fear of humiliation. I history of fear would be rendered meaningless if all negative emotional states were classified as 'really' being fear states.
JOANNA BOURKE
Fear: A Cultural History
Fear is a funny thing. It's one of our most basic human instincts, intended to protect us from all those dangers that might cause us harm and to jolt us to action when a threat becomes imminent. And yet that same fear can also be an invisible chain that ties us down and keeps us stuck. Instead of keeping us safe, it paralyzes us and prevents us from moving forward, from taking risks or putting ourselves out there, from having the courage to follow our dreams and create a life we love.
RUTH SOUKUP
"The 7 Fear Archetypes & How To Figure Out Yours", Mind Body Green, May 21, 2019
If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.
SENECA
Epistles
Leaders who feed fear typically are also ones who avoid facts.
BARACK OBAMA
Newsweek, April 29, 2019
A thing may be dreaded as long as it has not overtaken you.
CHANAKYA
Vridda-Chanakya
In regard to the great mass of men, anything that breaks the realm of fear is not salutary, but dangerous; because it takes off one of the hoops that hold the barrel together in which the evil spirits are confined.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Though it may arrive with shocking suddenness, horror devours its prey slowly. Through hours of days and years, it spreads its sullen darkness into every corner of the being it has conquered.
JOSEPHINE HART
Damage
Fear hath a numerous progeny.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
I would describe a hero as a person who has no fear of life, who can face life squarely.
ALEXANDER LOWEN
Fear of Life
Oh, we can populate the dark with horrors, even we who think ourselves informed and sure, believing nothing we cannot measure or weigh. I know beyond all doubt that the dark things crowding in on me either did not exist or were not dangerous to me, and still I was afraid.
JOHN STEINBECK
Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Fear is contagious. You can catch it.
NEIL GAIMAN
The Graveyard Book
Fear is the brother of hate.
LARRY NIVEN
Ringworld
Fear was there, too, cold and hot at the same time, making everything in the plain room sharper, with fewer shadows.
ALLISON BRENNAN
Fear No Evil
Not to fear where there is occasion, is as great a weakness as to fear unduly, without reason.... Fear is a kind of bell, or gong, which rings the mind into quick life and avoidance upon the approach of danger.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.
LEE CHILD
Echo Burning
You are frightened of everything. You call it caution. You call it common sense. You call it practicality. You call it playing the odds, but that's only because you're afraid to call it by its real name, and its real name is fear.
MICK FARREN
Darklost
Fear has no brains; it is an idiot.
AMBROSE BIERCE
"The Moonlit Road"
The strongest human emotion is fear. It's the essence of any good thriller that, for a little while, you believe in the boogeyman.
JOHN CARPENTER
Time, Nov. 16, 1987
All is well, tho' faith and form
Be sunder'd in the night of fear.
ALFRED
LORD TENNYSON, In Memoriam
Fear is ever-present, waiting to be called to the surface. Change brought fear, and fear brought destruction.
BERNARD BECKETT
Genesis