250 Inspirational Quotes On Fear

Who isn’t inspired by inspirational quotes on fear? I believe quotes are a big part of the reason Facebook is so successful. 

Quotes can make you laugh, inspire aha moments, move you to take action, bring you to tears or gently touch your soul.

We tuck them in books, put them on refrigerator magnets, post them on greeting cards and wear them on t-shirts. They cause us to pause and make us think and they simply move us emotionally.

I offer you these quotes on fear as a gift of encouragement. If there is something you fear today, let the quotes guide you in the direction of your wildest dreams

250 Inspirational Quotes On Fear 

1. We are afraid of the enormity of the possible. ~ Emile M. Cioran

2. The world is full of a lot of fear and a lot of negativity, and a lot of judgment. I just think people need to start shifting into joy and happiness. As corny as it sounds, we need to make a shift. ~ Ellen DeGeneres

3. I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead, despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back. ~ Erica Jong

4. Do not let your fears choose your destiny. ~ Unknown

5. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes. ~ Francis Bacon

6. Fear is never a reason for quitting; it is only an excuse. ~ Norman Vincent Peale 

7. Ultimately, we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom. ~ Mary Ferguson

8. People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines… There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear.  ~ Bill Gates

9. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. ~ Soren Keiregaard

10. The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. ~ Anne Frank

11. Fear is a habit. So is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resignation. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves: I can! And I will! ~ Napoleon Hill

12. There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life. ~ John Lennon

13. Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday I’ll’ philosophy. ~ Denis Waitley

14. Fear is faith that it won’t work out. ~ Unknown

15. A fear of the unknown keeps a lot of people from leaving bad situations. ~ Kathie Lee Gifford

16. There are four ways you can handle fear. You can go over it, under it, or around it. But if you are ever to put fear behind you, you must walk straight through it. Once you put fear behind you. Leave it there. ~ Donna Favors

17. I know that if I scare myself once a day, I’m a better person. ~ Laird Hamilton

18. Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

19. There are two kinds of fears: rational and irrational – or in simpler terms, fears that make sense and fears that don’t. ~ Lemony Snicket

20. We must build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

21. Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up. ~ Veronica Roth

22. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. ~ Ambrose Redmoon

23. “I love you,” I thought. But I didn’t say it. It was not that I feared she would laugh in my face. She was far too kind for that. My fear was a greater one – that she wouldn’t say it back. ~ Alex Flinn

24. The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds. ~ William James

25. To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead. ~ Bertrand Russell

26. Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. ~ Nelson Mandela

27. How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it. ~ Paulo Coelho

28. When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel. ~ Eloise Ristad

29. The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls. ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton 

30. But fear doesn’t need doors and windows. It works from the inside. ~ Andrew Clements

31. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. ~ Paulo Coelho  

32. To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your path, and don’t worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest. ~ Terry Prachett

33. Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility. ~ Sigmund Freud

34. Don’t try to be fearless or pretend you aren’t impacted by fear. Just try to prevent fear from making your decisions for you. ~ Chris Guillebeau

35. We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind’s greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

36. The only time you fail is when you fall down and stay down. ~ Stephen Richards

37. I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. ~ J. K. Rowling

38. Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will. ~ W. Clement Stone

39. The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear: fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety. ~ Henry Louis Mencken

40. Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it…that is the quickest and surest way yet discovered to conquer fear. ~ Dale Carnegie

41. Somebody should tell us…right at the start of our lives…that we are dying. Then we might live to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows. ~ Michael Landon

42. Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. ~ Hafez

43. Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. ~ Bertrand Russell

44. Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop. ~ Usman B. Asif

45. The key to change…is to let go of fear. ~ Rosanne Cash

46. It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts. ~ Zig Ziglar

47. Sometimes, when we want something so badly, we fear failure more than we fear being without that thing. ~ Matthew J. Kirby

48. Lift your eyes, straighten your back, let fear and pain walk away like the turtles they are. ~ Victor Robert Lee

49. There is no illusion greater than fear. ~ Lao Tzu

50. If we let fear control our decision making, we always make the wrong decision. ~ Butch Bella

51. Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

52. To escape fear, you have to go through it, not around. ~ Richie Norton

53. To me, Fearless is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. ~ Taylor Swift

54. A cheerful frame of mind, reinforced by relaxation…is the medicine that puts all ghosts of fear on the run. ~ George Matthew Adams

55. Fear—who cares? ~ Elizabeth Gilbert 

56. I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. ~ Rosa Parks

57. Can you imagine a life with no fear? What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? ~ Max Lucado

58. To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another. ~ Katherine Paterson

59. Internal and external are ultimately one. When you no longer perceive the world as hostile, there is no more fear, and when there is no more fear, you think, speak and act differently. Love and compassion arise, and they affect the world. ~ Eckhart Tolle

60. He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

61. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? ~Vincent Van Gogh

63. The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire, not things we fear. ~ Brian Tracy

64. Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that. People who refused to consult or cower to their timidities did that. But fear itself? Fear herds us into a prison and slams the doors. Wouldn’t it be great to walk out? ~ Max Lucado

65. Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it. ~ Henry S. Haskins

66. Fear isn’t an excuse to come to a standstill. It’s the impetus to step up and strike. ~ Arthur Ashe

67. Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. ~ Dale Carnegie

68. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ~Dostoyevsky

69. You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith. ~ Mary Manin Morrissey

70. I’ve got more energy now than when I was younger because I know exactly what I want to do. ~ George Balanchine

71. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. ~ Les Brown

72. The first and great commandment is: Don’t let them scare you. ~ Elmer Davis

73. Remember that you are a teacher; you are helping people, making them feel safer, taking them from fear to love, from ignorance to knowledge. ~ Stuart Wilde

74. Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards, but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight. ~ Orison Swett Marden

75. I am kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. ~ J.D. Salinger

76. I choose to rise up out of that storm and see that in moments of desperation, fear, and helplessness, each of us can be a rainbow of hope, doing what we can to extend ourselves in kindness and grace to one another. And I know for sure that there is no them… there’s only us. ~ Oprah Winfrey

77. I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best. ~ John Keats

78. Go back a little to leap further. ~ John Clarke

79. Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here. ~ Marianne Williamson

80. I failed my way to success. ~ Thomas Edison

81. Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a boogeyman around, turn on the light. ~ Dorothy Thompson

82. To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves. We must persistently and convincingly tell ourselves that the fear is here–with its gift of energy and heightened awareness–so we can do our best and learn the most in the new situation. ~ Peter Williams

83. In order to properly understand the big picture, everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth. ~ Xun Zi

84. Fearlessness is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. ~ Taylor Swift

85. Pick the day. Enjoy it to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present – and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future. ~ Audrey Hepburn

86. Fear can be good when you’re walking past an alley at night or when you need to check the locks on your doors before you go to bed, but it’s not good when you have a goal and you’re fearful of obstacles. We often get trapped by our fears, but anyone who has had success has failed before. ~ Queen Latifah

87. Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dali

88. True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful. ~ Paul Sweeney

89. Start a huge, foolish project like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you. ~ Rumi

90. To fight fear, act. To increase fear — wait, put off, postpone. ~ David Joseph Schwartz

91. To live in the world of creation—to get into it and stay in it—to frequent it and haunt it…to think intently and fruitfully, to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation—this is the only thing. ~ Henry James

92. We are all of us failures. At least, the best of us are. ~ James Barrie

93. We fear the thing we want the most. ~ Robert Anthony

94. Wherever fear shadows…that always means there is a light shining somewhere. ~ Jonathan Santos

95. Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success. ~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

96. Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it. ~ Bill Cosby

97. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. ~ Helen Keller

98. A mind focused on doubt and fear cannot focus on the journey to victory. ~ Mike Jones

99. The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually fear you will make one. ~ E. Hubbard

100. Every problem you or I have (and they are many, small and large), is rooted in fear. ~ Leo Babauta

101. Fear can force obedience, but it can never transform a heart. ~ Stacey Jay

102. What you fear will not go away; it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That’s the world, and we all live there. ~ William Stafford

103. No good work is ever done while the heart is hot and anxious and fretted. ~ Olive Schreiner

104. Fear kills everything: your mind, your heart, your imagination. ~ Cornelia Funke

105. Children have a lesson adults should learn, to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again. Most of us adults are so afraid, so cautious, so ‘safe,’ and therefore so shrinking and rigid and afraid… That it is why so many humans fail. Most middle-aged adults have resigned themselves to failure. ~ Malcolm X

106. So then learn to conquer your fear. This is the only art we have to master nowadays: to look at things without fear, and to fearlessly do right. ~ Friedrich Durrenmatt

107. One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

108. It’s better to die laughing than to live each moment in fear. ~ Unknown

109. Imagine not being frightened by any feeling. Imagine knowing that nothing will destroy you. That you are beyond any feeling and state. Bigger than. Vaster than. That there is no reason to use drugs because anything a drug could do would pale in comparison to knowing who you are. ~ Geneen Roth

110. Find what you are afraid of, face it, and then you won’t be afraid of it anymore. ~ Marilyn Manson

111. Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. ~ Robert F. Kennedy

112. Sometimes being naked with fear is a good experience. It teaches us a lot about ourselves and about life. It is scary but it awakens us. ~ Leo Babauta

113. I tend to scare myself. ~ Stephen King

114. I saw a little girl touch a big bug and shout, “I conquered my fear! YES!” and calmly walk away. I was inspired. ~ Nathan Fillion

115. Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost. ~ Thomas J. Watson  

116. People are supposed to fear the unknown, but ignorance is bliss when knowledge is so damn frightening. ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

117. There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them. ~ Andre Gide

118. Why is it that when we get older, we get more fearful? ~ Sandra Bullock

119. Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great. ~ Fernando Flores

120. One’s fear of rejection is one’s fear of love. ~ Alexandria Honey

121. I’m intimidated by the fear of being average. ~ Taylor Swift

122. Love is like jumping out of an airplane with no parachute. But there’s no need to be frightened, because that plane is still on the ground. ~ Jarod Kintz

123. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. ~ Plato

124.  I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit. ~ Dawna Markova

125. Laughter is poison to fear. ~ George R.R. Martin 

126. Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire. ~ Dan Brown

127. How would you feel if you had no fear? Feel like that. How would you behave toward other people if you realized their powerlessness to hurt you? Behave like that. How would your reaction be to so-called misfortune if you saw its inability to bother you? React like that. How would you think toward yourself if you knew you were really all right? Think like that. ~ Vernon Howard

128. Do one thing everyday that scares you. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

129. I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always … so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you. ~ Yann Martel 

130. The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is fear. ~ Gandhi

131. The light of a new day always chases the shadows of the night away, and shows us that the shape of our fear is only the ghost of our own minds. ~ Terry Goodkind

132. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?’

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~ Marianne Williamson

133. Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart… Your raw and beautiful heart. ~ Chögyam Trungpa

134. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. ~ Frederick Buechner

135. Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter. ~ Francis Chan

136. In an age when nations and individuals routinely exchange murder for murder, when the healing grace of authentic spirituality is usurped by the divisive politics of religious organizations, and when broken hearts bleed pain in darkness without the relief of compassion, the voice of an exceptional poet producing exceptional work is not something the world can afford to dismiss. ~ Aberjhani

137. If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry. ~ Dalai Lama

138. Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. ~ Bertrand Russell

139. Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

140. The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. ~ Joseph Campbell

141. Fear is a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life. ~ Donald Miller 

142. Having a fear is natural. But letting a fear stop you from your dream is a tragedy. To beat the fear, you just have to do it. ~ Leo Babauta

143. It’s all right to be afraid. You just don’t let it stop you from doing your job. ~ Jim Butcher

144. It frightens me, the awful truth, of how sweet life can be. ~ Bob Dylan

145. Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

146. Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power. ~ John Steinbeck

147. A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more. ~ John Steinbeck

148. When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future, and the past and future become one. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

149. The baby bat screamed out in fright, “Turn on the dark; I’m afraid of the light.” ~ Shel Silverstein

150. The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be. ~ Dalai Lama

151. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

152. Your fear is 100% dependent on you for its survival. ~ Steve Maraboli

153. Deep in my heart I’m concealing things that I’m longing to say. Scared to confess what I’m feeling; frightened you’ll slip away. ~ Madonna

154. Only those who have never known fear are allowed to think less of others for being afraid. Frankly, I think anyone who has never been afraid of anything in their entire life is either a liar or lacks imagination. ~ Laurel K. Hamilton

155. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person. ~ Dr. David M. Burns

156. Realize that fear is the worst of it. Fear is your real enemy. ~ Marc and Angel

157. There is no beauty in sadness. No honor in suffering. No growth in fear. No relief in hate. It’s just a waste of perfectly good happiness. ~ Katerina Stoykova Klemer

158. Courage is knowing what not to fear. ~ Plato

159. A further sign of health is that we don’t become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it’s time to stop struggling and look directly at what’s threatening us.
~ Pema Chodron

160. Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~ Earl Nightingale

161. We made it. Despite the fear and predictions of doom. We made it. Even though there were days when we were tired and there were days when we forgot who we were. We made it. And we must thank the stars for this. And the birds for their beautiful songs. And the strangers who were careful to smile. We made it. ~ Ron Atchison

162. We cannot love when we feel fear…When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total love and oneness with all. ~ Gerald Jampolsky

163. Life can take so many twists and turns you can’t ever count yourself out. Even if you’re really afraid at some point, you can’t think that there’s no room for you to grow and do something good with your life. ~ Portia de Rossi

164. Never worry alone. When anxiety grabs my mind, it is self-perpetuating. Worrisome thoughts reproduce faster than rabbits, so one of the most powerful ways to stop the spiral of worry is simply to disclose my worry to a friend…The simple act of reassurance from another human being [becomes] a tool of the Spirit to cast out fear — because peace and fear are both contagious. ~ John Ortberg

165. I’m terrified of getting involved with someone who disappoints me or leaves me empty and alone. I’m terrified of rejection, so I set my expectations so high that they can never be met, and I dig around with a magnifying glass looking for flaws in very person I date. There’s always a flaw to exploit, and I’ll find it so I never have to get too close. ~ Rachel Machacek

166. We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate. ~ Erica Jong

167. If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered. ~ Stephen King

168. Never compromise a dream. Do what you must. The fears, beasts, and mountains before you are part of the plan. Stepping stones to a promised land. To a time and place that is so much closer than even you expect. So don’t let your eyes deceive you, for even as you read these words, your ship swiftly approaches… ~ Mike Dooley

169. The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

170. Fear defeats more people than poverty, ignorance, superstition, ill health or lack of mental ability. ~ Albert Wiggam

171. Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. ~ German Proverb

172. Our deepest, darkest, most numbing fears aren’t spiders, rats, or snakes. While they may frighten us, our fear of spiders and such probably won’t lead us to live a small, insignificant life. Fear of failure will. ~ Chad Howse

173. Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, and drive through the other barrier. And after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day ~ Seth Godin

174. Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for the past and fear of the future. ~ Unknown

175. Giving up is the only sure way to fail. ~ Gena Showalter

176. I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run towards it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your foot. ~ Nadia Comaneci

178. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Elanor Roosevelt

179. Mastering others is strength. Mastering oneself makes you fearless. ~ Lao Tzu

180. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence; that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. ~ Henry David Thoreau 

181. When you teach them, teach them not to fear. Fear is good in small amounts, but when it is a constant, pounding companion, it cuts away at who you are and makes it hard to do what you know is right. ~ Christopher Pauline 

182. Fear sucks. Because you never know when it will attack. Sometimes it sneaks up behind you, giggling like your best girlfriend from seventh grade. Then it whacks you on the back of the head, takes you straight to your knees before you realize what hit you. Other times you can see it coming, just a dot on the horizon, but you’re like a canary in a cage. ~ Unknown 

183. Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will. ~ James Stephens

184. When people are determined, they can overcome anything. ~ Nelson Mandela

185. My life was going to flash before my eyes, but it decided to hide behind my eyes and quake with terror instead. ~ Sarah Rees Brennan 

186. The fear of an unknown never resolves, because the unknown expands infinitely outward, leaving you to cling pitifully to any small shelter of the known: a cracker has twelve calories; the skin, when cut, bleeds. ~ Caroline Kettlewell 

187. We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. ~ Seneca

188. We fear what we most desire. ~ Harley King 

189. “You shouldn’t feel so bad about being afraid of so many things.” “Why not?” “Because if you weren’t afraid never ever, then you couldn’t be brave never ever.” ~ C. C. JoyBell

190. Expose yourself to your deepest fear. After that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free. ~ Jim Morrison

191. If you have no faith in yourself, then have faith in the things you call truth. You know what must be done. You may not have courage or trust or understanding or the will to do it, but you know what must be done. You can’t turn back. There is no answer behind you. You fear what you cannot name. So look at it and find a name for it. Turn your face forward and learn. Do what must be done. ~ Patricia A. McKillip 

192. Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchhill 

193. When you do what you fear most, then you can do anything. ~ Stephen Richards 

194. I have learned the novice can often see things that the expert overlooks. All that is necessary is not to be afraid of making mistakes, or of appearing naive. ~ Abraham Maslow

195. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities. ~ James Allen

196. Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

197. Death is not the biggest fear we have. Our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive—the risk to be alive and express what we really are. ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

198. I believe there are three tenets to live by in this apartment called Life: Love is empowering, Fear is motivating, and Passion is fruit. ~ Jarod Kuntz

199. Courage is fear that has said its prayers. ~ Dorothy Bernard 

200. Fear is the thief of dreams. ~ Brian Khans 

201. The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free. ~ Oprah Winfrey

202. One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do. ~ Henry Ford

203. Your fear remains strong. You are not ready to face your story, preferring instead to surround yourself with knots. Someday, they will strangle you. ~ Maria V. Snyder

204. Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not. ~ Virgil Thomson

205. It is a true saying, that what you fear you find. ~ Jeanette Winterson 

206. If you are facing a new challenge or being asked to do something that you have never done before, don’t be afraid to step out. You have more capability than you think you do, but you will never see it unless you place a demand on yourself for more. ~ Joyce Meyer 

207. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt 

208. It’s okay to be crazy and scared and brave at the same time! ~ Kelly Epperson 

209. I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time. ~ Charlie Brown

210. But fear is confusing. It tears you in two. Half of you wants to run far, far away, but the other half is paralyzed, frozen, immovable. And the hard part is that you never know which half is going to win. ~ Melody Carlson

211. Fear always springs from ignorance. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

213. As Grams treaded water, she tapped my forehead. “What’s in here, Poppy, is scarier than anything you’ll encounter in the depths of the ocean. An imagination is a powerful thing.” ~ Shelley Coriell

214. A thousand fearful images and dire suggestions glance along the mind when it is moody and discontented with itself. Command them to stand and show themselves, and you presently assert the power of reason over imagination. ~ Sir Walter Scott 

215. What is fear after all? It is indecision. You seek some way to resist, escape. There is none. ~ Anne Rice

216. Fear of becoming a has-been keeps some people from becoming anything. ~ Eric Hoffer

217. I am convinced that the deepest desire within each of us is to be liberated from the controlling influences of our own psychic madness or patterns of fear. All other things – the disdain of ordinary life, the need to control others rather than be controlled, the craving for material goods as a means of security and protection against the winds of chaos – are external props that serve as substitutes for the real battle, which is the one waged within the individual soul. ~ Caroline Myss

218. If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living. ~ Seneca

219. For as children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we, in the light, sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true. ~ Titus Lucretius Carus

220. So now I know. I fear the unknown so deeply that I’d rather repeat the same heartbreaking pattern than face something or someone I can’t predict. ~ Valerie Frankel

221. There is great beauty in going through life without anxiety or fear. Half our fears are baseless, and the other half discreditable. ~ Christian Nevell Bovee

222. Devour your fear. ~ Simon Holt

223. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It’s just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

224. Being aware of your fear is smart. Overcoming it is the mark of a successful person. ~ Seth Godin

225. Our tongues can’t compete with the rapid thinking of our brains; our words come out slow and slurred. The pen is our haven. There is a lot of fear buried into that little pen. It holds all of our agony, our torment, our blood and our heaven. ~ Coco J. Ginger

226. Most of us try to do too much because we are secretly afraid we will not be able to do anything at all. ~ Rick Aster

227. There are only three sins: causing pain, causing fear, and causing anguish. The rest is window dressing. ~ Roger Caras

228. Of all the questions I have asked my readers, this is the most important: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? When you finally give wings to that answer, then you have found your life’s purpose. ~ Shannon L. Alder

229. Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out. ~ Karl Menninger

230. Anxiety is just repeatedly experiencing failure in advance. ~ Seth Godin

231. Sometimes being naked with fear is a good experience. It teaches us a lot about ourselves and about life. It is scary, but it awakens us. ~ Leo Babauta

232. Get the facts first, THEN panic. ~ Anonymous

233. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic. ~ Unknown

234. Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear. ~ Cheri Huber

235. When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation — it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams. ~ Les Brown

236. Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

237. The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure. ~ Sven Goran Eriksson

238. Fear can supplant our real problems only to the extent — unwilling either to assimilate or to exhaust it — we perpetuate it within ourselves like a temptation and enthrone it at the very heart of our solitude. ~ Emil Cioran

239. I will show you fear in a handful of dust. ~ T. S. Eliot

240. The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid. ~ Lady Bird Johnson

241. Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives: to experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it. ~ Judy Blume

242. Those that walk with fear will always be too busy hiding. ~Mike Dolan

243. You are the one giving fear a leg to stand on. ~ Dodinsky

244. Be fearless. Have the courage to take risks. Go where there are no guarantees. Get out of your comfort zone even if it means being uncomfortable. The road less traveled is sometimes fraught with barricades, bumps, and uncharted terrain. But it is on that road where your character is truly tested.  Have the courage to accept that you’re not perfect, nothing is and no one is — and that’s OK. ~ Katie Couric

245. The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only [in] the moment [that] you reject all help are you freed. ~ Gautama Buddha

246. A cat bitten once by a snake dreads even rope. ~ Arab Proverb

247. Don’t fear, just live right. ~ Neal A. Maxwell

248. Waiting to develop courage is just another form of procrastination. The most successful people take action while they’re afraid! ~ Unknown‎

249. He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

250. It’s about the choices you’ve just made, and the ones you’re about to make; it’s about the things you choose to say – today. It’s about what you’re gonna do after you finish reading this. ~ Mike Dooley

Do you have a favorite quote on fear?

We all have our personal favorites don’t we? I’d love it if you shared yours with The Bold Life community below. Before you leave download your 21 Steps To Claim Your Courage Series. It’s completely free!

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