In this collection of quotes about fear we will look into the darkest recesses of our minds. We will look at the things that truly scare us, and see why they often don’t matter.
These fear quotes will help us face our fears and vanquish them. Let’s get to it…
Fear. It is human nature to fear.
Fear allows us to increase our supply of adrenaline and react quicker when things happen around us. It allows us to realize that there are things out there that can hurt us and take the proper precautions.
Fear can be a good thing. It has been saving our ancestors butts since the time that they were hunting a Sabertooth Tiger with nothing but a pointy stick.
Fear has an important place in our lives, but it can also hold us back. Unlike in caveman times, we do not need to live in constant fear. Too much fear converts to stress and anxiety, making our lives more complicated. Dealing with stress becomes more of a health issue than the thing we actually fear.
That is the paradox of most modern fear. It is often not grounded in reality, but only in our mind.
For the first section of fear quotes we have a wide selection of quote about how fear makes us feel. These quotes show the bad side of fear and how it can affect people.
Quotes About Fear
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda
“All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.”– George S. Patton
“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”– Bertrand Russell
“Fear cuts deeper than swords.”– George R.R. Martin
“Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real.”– Unknown
“Is it useful to feel fear, because it prepares you for nasty events, or is it useless, because nasty events will occur whether you are frightened or not?”– Lemony Snicket
“Many times, the thought of fear itself is greater than what it is we fear.”– Idowu Koyenikan
“Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire.”– Dan Brown
“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.”– Rudyard Kipling
“One great enemy we must all endeavor to fear not conquering is fear. Fear can cripple purpose and purposeful life. Fear asks question we must fear. Fear makes vision a nightmare. One must always cross the barrier of fear to get to the great city of true purposefulness. A great number of us who are unable to live to accomplish the true reason for our existence on earth are unable to cross the barrier of fear in the first place.”– Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.”– Gandhi
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”– Paulo Coelho
“We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.” – François de La Rochefoucauld
“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.”– Eric Hoffer
The next section of fear quotes deal with overcoming fear. After all, we all have some fears, but it is how we deal with these fears that really matters. When we overcome our fears we are free to do anything we want with life.
If you want to overcome your fear, I would first like to point you to an article, How to Face Your Fears. This post lists scientifically backed steps to getting rid of your fears. Things like: implement intention. The 5 why’s. Tim Ferris’ fear setting exercise.How to get support to combat your fears. Using CBT and progressive desensitization and more. Check out the entire article below:
The second post on fear, I would like to draw your attention to is a post by my friend Stephen Guise. Stephen tackles the biggest feat of all: The Fear of Failure.
Finally I would like to draw your attention to one more post related to fear. This is not about fear directly but what is left behind by fear in our modern world: stress and anxiety.
If you feel stressed or anxious, some of the books in the best books for dealing with anxiety and stress collection will help you get these negative emotions under control.
Don’t let anxiety and stress control you. Get these fear based emotions under your control.
Now, let’s see what other people have to say about overcoming fear by jumping back into the fear quotes.
Overcoming Fear Quotes
“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.”– James Stephens
“Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.”– Judy Blume
“Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.”– Karl Augustus Menninger
“Find out what you're afraid of and go live there.”– Chuck Palahniuk
“He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.”– Franz Kafka
“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If you try to get rid of fear and anger without knowing their meaning, they will grow stronger and return.”– Deepak Chopra
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”– Andre Gide
“Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”– Frederick Wilcox
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”– Joseph Campbell
“We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.”– Marilyn Monroe
“No Fear” is a slogan I see around a lot these days. I am not sure where it started.
It seems to reject the idea of fear entirely, or at least espouse the good advice to rise above fear and and never let it control you or your actions.
Although it is great as a positive affirmation or mantra. Living in a “No Fear” state sounds a lot easier than it is. No matter where we go, our fears seem to follow.
To live without fear you have to be fully mindful of your surroundings and have a deep connection to your inner self. Only then can you understand your fears and by understanding conquer them.
If you want to get in touch with your inner self in this way I recommend mindfulness. Here are some posts I have written on mindfulness that can help you to reach a “No Fear” state of being:
Mindful thinking may be the key to moving above fear into a true, “No Fear” state. But let’s see some more “No Fear quotes” to see what histories brightest minds think about living without fear.
No Fear Quotes
“Don't be afraid of being scared. To be afraid is a sign of common sense. Only complete idiots are not afraid of anything.”– Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.”– William Allen White
“I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.”– Jackson Pollock
“If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.”– George S. Patton
“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.”– Dorothy Thompson
“Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.”– Rita Levi-Montalcini
“The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed. ”– Buddha
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”– Gautama Buddha
“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable.”– Henry David Thoreau
“Where no hope is left, is left no fear.”– John Milton
“Who sees all beings in his own self, and his own self in all beings, loses all fear.”– Isa Upanishad
Even the bravest people have fears. Someone may be an adrenaline junkie and have no fear of heights and willing throw themselves in situations of great physical danger but still have a fear of commitment.
Fears are not all about nasty critters like spiders and other things that go bump in the night. Some of the worst fears are mundane. Like the next set of quotes we will look at: fear of the unknown.
Take a look at the top ten fears list below. How many apply to you?
Top Ten Fears List
Fear of the unknown comes in #4 on the top list of fears. But to some extent I bet most people have a bit of fear of the unknown.
This fear is part of the reason goal setting can be so popular. Wen we set goals we are trying to limit the unknown and take control of our future rather than leaving it to fate.
This is also the reason why some people will stay in a dead end job rather than trying something new. They know what they have, and even if it is terrible, the fear of the unknown can be even more scary.
Lets see what our quotes about fear of the unknown our experts have come up with….
Fear of the Unknown Quotes
“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
“Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”– J.K. Rowling
“Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of unknown things. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality.”– Isabel Allende
“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.”– Unknown
“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”– Jiddu Krishnamurti
“Seeing what scares you for what it is does not lessen the terror. It still has the power to break your heart, over and over again.”– Teri Terry
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” – H. P. Lovecraft
“The origin behind myths and religion is human terror of annihilation. Human societies invented mythology and religion in order to militate against people’s fear of living a mortal life. People fear time as a destroyer of human happiness, human beings, and human societies.”– Kilroy J. Oldster
“There are two kinds of fears: rational and irrational- or in simpler terms, fears that make sense and fears that don't.”– Lemony Snicket
“Where something even deeper than the marrow knows that the cost of avoiding what one fears is even greater than the actual object of that fear and so the fear itself is even more corrosive even more destructive than all the frightening potential of the thing that arouses it.”– Joe Henry
Fear of change comes in #6 on our list of fears above. It is a real fear. Some people just want things to stay the way they are.
Personally I find the fear of change to be one of the most troubling fears. One of the cores of my life is that I am always trying to change. This is part of the reason I started DevelopGoodHabits to find a way to document my own experiments with change. I want to give myself and others a game plan for change.
Changing bad habits or trying a new good habit on for size are a core part of who I am. The idea of fearing this change is foreign to me. But I feel badly for those who are afflicted with a healthy fear of change.
To grow we need to change. Being scared of change must be a tormented existence. Similar to Sisyphus pushing a rock uphill again-and-again forever. Never being able to change or break bad habits means making the same mistakes again-and-again. That thought scares me more than any creepy spiders.
Once again, lets see what our experts have to say about the fear of change.
Quotes About Fear of Change
“A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.”– J.R.R. Tolkien
“A year from now you will wish you had started today.”– Karen Lamb
“Change before you have to.”– Jack Welch
“Fear is a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.”– Donald Miller
“The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.”– Erica Jong
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”– Sigmund Freud
“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.”– Henry Ford
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“The fear of loss … it can destroy you as much as the loss itself.”– Sarah J. Maas
“The greatest fear in life is not of death, but unsolicited change.”– Raheel Farooq
“The world doesn't change in front of your eyes, it changes behind your back.”– Terry Hayes
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”– Plato
“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” – Jim Rohn
And finally we come to the final section of fear quotes and maybe the most important one. Quotes about facing our fears.
Fears have only as much power as we give them. Like any schoolyard bully, when you face your fears head on, they diminish. Do this often enough and you wonder what you are scared of in the first place.
This is how even the shyest introvert can build strong social skills: through repetition and slowly facing down their fears.
Lets see what the experts have to say about facing fear in this final set of quotes.
Facing Fear Quotes
“Courage is feeling fear, not getting rid of fear, and taking action in the face of fear.”– Roy T. Bennett
“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back.”– Babe Ruth
“Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.”– Isabel Allende
“I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.”– Daniel Keyes
“I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.”– Louisa May Alcott
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”– Jack Canfield
“In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”– Robert Louis Stevenson
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”– Nelson Mandela
“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”– Emma Donoghue
“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”– Nelson Mandela
“The key to change… is to let go of fear.”– Roseanne Cash
“Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.”– Virgil Thomson
What do you think about these quotes on facing fears?
Do you have a favorite fear quote? Are there any quotes that should be on this list? Please share your thoughts on fear and these fear quotes. Hopefully these quotes will inspire others to face their fears head on.
If you like these picture fear quotes, you may also like our post on songs about overcoming fear.
Please share these quotes on your favorite social media platform, like Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter.
Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what's truly important to you..
I like these:
“The best thing you can do is the right thing;
the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing;
the worst thing you can do is nothing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
“Try a thing you haven’t done three times.
Once to get over the fear of doing it.
Twice, to learn how to do it.
And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.” ~ Virgil Thomson
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