“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson
I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year. I didn’t resolve to eat fewer sweets and more veggies or to exercise more or clean out the cupboard–although those are good goals to keep in mind every year and all year long. Another great resolution that’s been popular in recent years is gratitude. Yes! Being grateful for what you have is so much better than complaining.
But this is a new year. A good time to think about what’s particularly important in 2025. The virtue that came to mind for me was courage. Maybe it’s the inspiration of the brave Ukrainian soldiers and civilians that inspired me. Or maybe it’s the disappointment I feel seeing politicians and businessmen who seem to be guided more by fear than by what they know to be right.
But then I think, wait: Courage? For me?
I tend to see myself more as someone who aspires to be kind and loving or hardworking and truthful. Maybe temperate in food and drink. (Aspire to be, I said.) But courageous? I don’t know.
I’m not the type who dreams of climbing a mountain or sailing solo around the world. And please don’t ask me to bungee jump off a cliff. (Although I did find ziplining great fun.) Of course, when I think back on it, I have taken many courageous steps over the years. Courage is kinda necessary to get through life.
To be a virtue, though, courage requires doing something hard or dangerous for a good reason. The Ukrainian soldiers are an obvious example of courage for a good cause. The firefighters in California are another. Daredevils don’t qualify.
In classical philosophy, courage is considered to be one of the four cardinal virtues:
-Prudence (or wisdom)
– Justice
– Courage
– Temperance
According to Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Wisdom of Solomon, and Christian tradition, these Cardinal Virtues are the linchpins from which all other virtues flow. In other words, if you aspire to be a virtuous person, none of these four can be ignored.
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I’m not sure what I’m going to be courageous about in 2025, but I plan to keep it front of my mind. I suspect all of us are going to need to be brave in 2025.
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Here are some favorite quotes about courage:
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin
*
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston S. Churchill*
“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”
― J.K. Rowling*
“God, grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.”
— Admiral Chester Nimitz*
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
Thank you for your thoughts on courage. So many of us will have to live in courage to stand up for those whose voices are getting buried deeper in the ashes of democracy every day.
I’m worried that many people will be harmed in the coming days. They’ll need lots of help.
May we find courage to deal with whatever life tosses our way. Even political grenades.
Namaste.
And may we be wise enough to know when to dodge the grenade and when to catch it and throw it back.
No resolutions here either. Great quotes. Here’s another: “The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle — the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.”
Douglas MacArthur
May our consciences be louder than a whisper. Maybe if we stick together, we can roar.
Wise words in these troubled times.
The wisdom of Plato, Aristotle, and the others doesn’t go out of style.
As usual, lively, entertaining and full of common sense. I think courage is as good a vow to make and try to follow in 2025, and also beyond. The courage of the battlefield is certainly of a high order. Fortunately, most of us are not required to take this test. Those who are not to be envied,
But the ordinary layman’s courage is demonstrated vividly by his fulfilling his daily obligations to friends, family and outsiders and doing acts of kindness, big or small, that help others and make him feel good in the process. In that sense, all of us are courageous, or display courage, without being aware we’re doing so.
Thank you, Mumtaz. Often it does take courage to fulfill our daily obligations, maybe just a little bit of courage, but we hope that’s good training for doing the right thing when a bigger burst of courage is needed.
That’s a gorgeous cake! Very Pacific Northwest. Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote is my favorite. May we all stand up for what’s right, even when it’s scary. Unlike the oligarchs in the rotunda tomorrow.
Watching Russia, I’ve been noticing how unpleasant it is to live in a country run by a dictator and a bunch of oligarchs. Twenty percent of Russians have no indoor plumbing, which means they use outhouses and outdoor hand pumps. Their central bank interest rate is 21%. And if you don’t live in Moscow or St. Petersburg, you may get sent to the front in what they call meat waves.
I like your pragmatic approach to being courageous this year. I imagine it’s going to be the small ways in which we demonstrate courage that will save this country from total ruin. The challenge will be to keep going, heading toward goodness, in spite of what we see around us.
Come to think of it, all four Cardinal Virtues are needed now: Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Temperance. I guess they’re always necessary, but especially now. Plato believed that the way to achieve happiness is to cultivate virtue.
Was the cake for your birthday? If so, i hope you had a lovely one!
Courage is good to have. I can’t help thinking of Martin Luther King and so many people facing challenging times.
My daughter from the East Coast saw a photo in the baker’s album and asked me to order it. No particular reason. It was so attractive, I had to have a picture before cutting it.
You’re right, Linda, to bring up Martin Luther King. We’re not the only ones facing challenging times.