When you have the courage to tell the truth about what you're really afraid of, fear doesn't have control over your life.

Ali Vincent, Believe It, Be It: How Being the Biggest Loser Won Me Back My Life, 2009

When one can hear people moving, one does not so much mind, about one's fears.

Ann Radcliffe (1764 - 1823), The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1764

When the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness of superstition¹, trifles impress it with the force of conviction.

Ann Radcliffe (1764 - 1823), The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1764

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 (1872 - 1970), Unpopular Essays (1950), "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.

Dorothy Bernard

Remember that fear always lurks² 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

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting³ and reasoning as fear.

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797), "A Philosophical⁴ Inquiry⁵ into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime⁶ and Beautiful", 1756

One need not be a chamber⁷ to be haunted;

One need not be a house;

The brain has corridors surpassing

Material place.

Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

It is when power is wedded⁸ to chronic⁹ fear that it becomes formidable.

Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983), The Passionate¹⁰ State of Mind, 1954

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

If you forgo¹¹ your plan, you also have to forgo fear.

Eric Schmidt, University of Pennsylvania Commencement Address, 2009

In life we don’t get what we want, we get in life what we are. If we want more we have to be able to be more, in order to be more you have to face rejection¹².

Farrah Gray

None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.

Ferdinand Foch (1851 - 1929)

Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically¹³ and fully¹⁴.

Frances Moore Lappe, O Magazine, May 2004

I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are.

Frances Moore Lappe, O Magazine, May 2004

Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

Francis Quarles (1592 - 1644)

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.

George Carlin (1937 - 2008)

Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt¹⁵.

George Sewell

Fear plays an interesting role in our lives. How dare we let it motivate us? How dare we let it into our decision making; into our livelihoods¹⁶; into our relationships? It's funny isn't it? We take a day a year to dress up, in costume and celebrate fear.

Greg Daniels, Carrie Kemper, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, The Office, Spooked, October 2011

Fear sometimes stops you from doing stupid things. But it can also stop you from doing creative or exciting or experimental things. It can cloud your judgment¹⁷ of others, and lead to all kinds of evil. The control and understanding of our personal fears is one of the most important undertakings¹⁸ in our life.

Helen Mirren

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous¹⁹ person afterward²⁰.

Jean Paul Richter (1763 - 1825)

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), Inaugural²¹ Adress, January 20, 1961

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge²².

Marie Ebner von Eschenbach, Aphorisms²³, 1905

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them.

Marilyn Ferguson

Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.

Michael Pritchard

To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves...We must persistently²⁴ 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 McWilliams, Life 101

The fear of death is more to be dreaded²⁵ than death itself.

Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims²⁶

Almost everything: all external expectations, all pride all fear of embarrassment²⁷ or failure. These tings just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011), Stanford Commencement Adress, 2005

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Susan Jeffers, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, 1988

Everyone has certain fears, certain things that one cannot abide²⁸.

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005