Courage and Strength

[ Of Socrates :] Such, Echecrates, was the end of our comrade, who was, we may fairly say, of all those whom we knew in our time, the bravest and also the wisest and most upright man.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President I must put the interests of America first. . . . Therefore, I shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow.

At the center of all these noble races we cannot fail to see the blond beast of prey, the magnificent blond beast avidly prowling round for spoil and victory.

As he saw it, there was only one choice—to be strong and upright, or to commit suicide.

In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable law.

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.

The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

In business the man who engages in the most adventures is surest to come out unhurt.

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

I understand by 'freedom of spirit' something quite definite - the unconditional will to say No where it is dangerous to say No.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance one cannot fly into flying.

Courage is the best slayer-courage which attacketh for in every attack there is the sound of triumph.

Either you reach a higher point today or you exercise your strength in order to be able to climb higher tomorrow.

When virtue has slept it will arise more vigorous.

What is Genius?- To aspire to a lofty aim and to will the means to that aim.

Every talent must unfold itself in fighting.

I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master of this crisis, is a question of his strength.

He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.

to have to combat one’s instincts—that is the formula for decadence: as long as life is ascending, happiness and instinct are one.

Nietzsche, an infinitely harder and more courageous intellect, was incapable of any such confusion of ideas; he seldom allowed sentimentality to turn him from the glaring fact.