Quotes about Fear

Most of us are tiptoeing through life so we can reach death safely. We should be praying, "If I should wake before I die. . . ." Life can get away from you.

Courage frees us from the fears that would rob us of life itself.

Those who never take risks can only see other people's failures.

We are kept out of the Garden by our own fear and desire in relation to what we think to be the goods of our life.

Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.

I'm not qualified," I protested. "Me, a minister? I have no idea how to be a pastor." He said, "When God calls someone, that's all that really matters. Don't let yourself be afraid.

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.

Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?

My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.

I love readings and my readers, but the din of voices of the audience gives me stage fright, and the din of voices inside whisper that I am a fraud, and that the jig is up. Surely someone will rise up from the audience and say out loud that not only am I not funny and helpful, but I'm annoying, and a phony.

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.