Echoes

When you have decided that a thing ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid being seen doing it, though many shall form an unfavorable opinion about it. For if it is not right, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly?

Don't let anyone impose on you. Don't be quarrelsome, but stand up for your rights. If you've got to fight, fight hard and well. To my mind, a coward is the only thing meaner than a liar.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

It would be better for me... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity. In the final analysis, a democratic government represents the sum total of the courage and the integrity of its individuals. It cannot be better than they are. … In the long run there is no more exhilarating experience than to determine one's position, state it bravely and then act boldly.

Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

It is difficulties that show what men are.

Character is the virtue of hard times.

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

Optimism is true moral courage.

There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.

My life is my message.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

It is the part of cowardice, not of courage, to go and crouch in a hole under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of fortune.

To be popular is easy; to be right when right is unpopular, is noble... I repudiate with scorn the immoral doctrine, 'Our country, right or wrong'.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.

It would be better for me that the whole world should disagree with me than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be "damned if you do, and damned if you don't."

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.