If you want to cultivate courage in your life, this is the book you should read.
It explores different examples of what it means to be courageous. You will be inspired to be braver in many ways after reading this book.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 4/5
Mindset: 4/5
Some of My Highlights:
“Aristotle described virtue as a kind of craft, something to pursue just as one pursues the mastery of any profession or skill.”
“It’s the entrepreneur going into business for themselves, against all odds.”
“There aren’t two kinds of courage. There is only one. The kind where you put your ass on the line.”
“Courage is risk. It is sacrifice… commitment… perseverance… truth… determination.”
“This is why the Spartans built temples to fear. To keep it close. To see its power.”
“So if we wish to be great, we must first learn how to conquer fear, or at least rise above it in the moments that matter.”
“Fear does this. It keeps us from our destiny. It holds us back. It freezes us. It gives us a million reasons why. Or why not.”
“There is nothing worth doing that is not scary. There is no one who has achieved greatness without wrestling with their own doubts, anxieties, limitations, and demons.”
“Even the ancient Stoics, supposedly the masters of all emotion, conceded that we’ll have involuntary reactions. To loud noises. To uncertainty. To being attacked.”
“Do you know what the most repeated phrase in the Bible is? It’s ‘Be not afraid.'”
“‘Be scared. You can’t help that,’ William Faulkner put it. ‘But don’t be afraid.'”
“The world is a narrow bridge, and the important thing is not to be afraid.”
“It has been said that leaders are dealers in hope, but in a more practical sense, they are also slayers of fear.”
“Let other people worry over what they will say about you. They will say it in any case.” – Cicero
“Several times a day, Napoleon believed a commander should ask themselves, ‘What if the enemy were to appear now to my front, or on my right, or on my left?'”
“Foresee the worst to perform the best.”
“When fear is defined, it can be defeated.”
“There’s almost no accomplishment that is possible without calling attention to yourself.”
“‘Don’t be ashamed to need help,’ Marcus Aurelius wrote.”
“We’re in this mission together. We’re comrades. Ask for help. It’s not just brave, it’s the right thing to do.”
“That is the thing about courage. Just like fear, it is contagious.”
“‘What everyone seems to ignore,’ de Gaulle would say, ‘is the incredible mixture of patience, of slow development, of obstinate creativity, of trick questions, the dizzying succession of calculation, negotiations, conflicts, trips that we had to carry out to accomplish our enterprise.'”
“You don’t become the first female prime minister of England by blending in.”
“‘If they can force you,’ Seneca has Hercules say in one of his plays, ‘then you’ve forgotten how to die.'”
“Man is pushed by drives. But he is pulled by values.” – Viktor Frankl
“A confrontation that doesn’t need to happen, shouldn’t happen.”