a Literal Definition of Courage.

What does COURAGE mean to you?

I heard a definition from a movie, but not sure what the name was.

I liked the definition alot, spoken by Marten Lawrence.

I'm sure i may be paraphrasing, but here is the jist of what he said about courage:

"Courage is the effective concealment and hiding of fear"

I sort of like that definition, so i thought i would share it.

incidently, i only caught a small portion of the movie i heard it from, but it was a movie with Marten Larwence in it, and i think he was coaching a kids school basketball team.

I'm curious as to how some other members may define courage, or what courage means to them.

OBVIOUSLY there is no wrong answer. I'm merely inquisitive as to how others feel about the concept of "courage".

a little word game ... at the core people may find rage, put them together and people have core rage to conceal their fear, face there fear, overcome their fear, or chang their fear into ..... something other than fear ....

What does COURAGE mean to you?

Thanks in advance for sharing your feelings and/or logic about courage,
john

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Courage, also known as fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation. It can be divided into "physical courage" — in face of physical pain, hardship, and threat of death — and "moral courage" — in the face of shame, scandal, and discouragement.

Your meaning is courage is the same as mine, although you were just talking about moral courage correct?

Courage is one of my favourite words along with Valiant, my favourite word.

When I think of Courage / Valiance I think of:

Martin Luther King
Sam Fischer
St Michael the Archangel

[edit on 20-1-2007 by Selmer2]

when i think of courage i think of people who challenge the status quo for the betterment of the oppressed, no matter what the cost

i think of the two greats of non-violent resistance

gandhi
and the follower of his teachings: dr. king

Courage is what a person has when, upon facing fear, they do not let fear hinder their actions.

It is a person's resilience to the negative effects brought on by fear.

This is a good demonstration of courage:

en.wikipedia.org...

This man was in the Beslan school siege, he was offered to leave by the terrorist leader with "a number of nursing mothers were allowed to leave the building with their babies". He refused, and stayed in the building. He also demanded water for the children, and when the terrorists refused and beat him, he was defiant to them. Read the article for more. Would you act like that?

If you ask me, you don't come much closer to amazing courage than that.

Courage is grace under pressure.
Ernest Hemingway

Courage is the capacity to confirm what can be imagined.
Leo Rosten

Courage can't see around corners but goes around them anyway.
Mignon McLaughlin

The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
Ralph W. Sockman

i think that Lao Tzu pointed out the source of courage best:

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

YES!!!!

madness you hit the proverbial nail right on it's ever-elusive head!

That's it! Perfectly describing all I know about courage and what it has taught me -in others and of others and for others who loved me and I them.

BUT remember....Heroes only truly come in sandwiches anymore...

duck duck goose

[edit on 1/20/2007 by queenannie38]

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
What does COURAGE mean to you?

What does COURAGE mean to you?

Courage is being able to stay on this board for more that three hours at a time.

Originally posted by merky

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
What does COURAGE mean to you?

What does COURAGE mean to you?

Courage is being able to stay on this board for more that three hours at a time.

I think you may have inadvertantly misquoted me, but it sometimes happens.

I believe merky's contribution was:

Courage is being able to stay on this board for more that three hours at a time.

No harm, no foul.

Thanks,
john

[edit on 3-2-2007 by Esoteric Teacher]

Courage?

Cool!

I thought it was either hopeless addiction or else evidence of a lack of social life.

hee hee

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

This quote is framed with my fire departments symbol by my back door. It also sits in my office.

That is what courage is.

I see it in my brothers faces as they crouch in the doorway of a burning structure, all you can hear is the sound of the SCBA's breathing in and out and the chief barking commands just before we gain entry.

They all wear the horrific mask of fear. Then gain entry hunkered down to not disrupt the thermal layer as you hear the fire roaring.

I love those brothers and sisters.


[edit on 4-2-2007 by LoneGunMan]

Yes.

My mental definitive illustration of that which you describe, LGM, is from the very opening minutes of the movie 'Saving Private Ryan' when those first convoys of GI's (boys not even men mostly OMG) start to run aground at Normandy.

I know you've seen it. That is something I cannot imagine but courage of the sort that is all that's left. After seeing that i realized what a hero my dad had been just for being there...and he was already gone over and not yet come back to me so all i could do to compensate for my wishing i had seen it before...i saw men like him in a totally different light.

I saw heroes.

And then the description extended itself and i saw other types of people as heroes...i think it should go on like that until i see every single person as a hero in their own determined moment and i think that will heal a lot of our ills (or rather set the mending in motion)

Rosa Parks is a hero
(because she refused to stand up!)
Princess Di
(because she refused to be put down)
MLK
(for literally turning the other cheek)
Jesse Jackson
(for following MLK's example)
Jackie Onassis
(just because she was an example of true and loyal womanhood )
Yoko Ono
(same reason)
Anna Hauptmann
(again)
- and all three were robbed of their heroes by needless acts of fear or violence
AND also Coretta Scott King...


ET and LGM i know both of you are heroes and truly noble about your service. Most people don't realize unless they also do what you do. But i do realize and i love you both for what you do for all of us every day...without thought for yourselves. And you are both so sweet that it gives me cavities just to talk on the phone to you. Please don't change~

Those are kind words, but am I not a hero.

I just have seen courage, and cannot forget what it looks like.

It looks very fearful...yet determined.

Its the look of a stage 4 cancer patient that broke her femor sitting on the toilet. Preparing herself for the pain we were about to inflict on her to backboard her, then traction splint her leg in her bedroom. Just to leave her home and die in the hospital.

That was the face of courage.