Quotes on fear

Gun crime is a major cause of fear and distress throughout the UK. The problem is deeply entrenched in a wide range of social and cultural factors and therefore not an isolated issue.

Author: Diane Abbott

I don't remember what was going through my mind, but what was going through my body was fear and terror. I had been on the road with Johnny and working gigs and playing a lot of the organ clubs.

Author: John Abercrombie

Well, fear and homophobia are both pervasive.

Author: Kathy Acker

A cheerful frame of mind, reinforced by relaxation... is the medicine that puts all ghosts of fear on the run.

Author: George Adams

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

Author: John Adams

I have no fear of being less beautiful, I've always been afraid of not being beautiful.

Author: Isabelle Adjani

Fear... is forward. No one is afraid of yesterday.

Author: Renata Adler

Excessive fear is always powerless.

Author: Aeschylus

When a match has equal partners then I fear not.

Author: Aeschylus

When I like someone a lot, I get scared that I'll let them down. My fear of sucking is worst when I feel like someone thinks I'm good.

Author: Casey Affleck

Worry does not mean fear, but readiness for the confrontation.

Author: Bashar al-Assad

Courage is just fear, plus prayers, plus understanding.

Author: Edward Albert

Some days it is a heroic act just to refuse the paralysis of fear and straighten up and step into another day.

Author: Edward Albert

In my opinion, a master is morally obliged to seize every sort of opportunity and to try to solve the problems of the position without fear of some simplifications.

Author: Alexander Alekhine

They who have conquered doubt and fear have conquered failure.

Author: James Allen

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.

Author: James Allen

We manage the fear, I manage the fear, but it certainly takes its toll, the strain does.

Author: Christiane Amanpour

Because interrogations are intended to coerce confessions, interrogators feel themselves justified in using their coercive means. Consistency regarding the technique is not important; inducing anxiety and fear is the point.

Author: Aldrich Ames

Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.

Author: Marian Anderson

Mine are the deep-seated fears established when we are children, and they never quite go away: the fear of being helpless, the fear of being trapped, the fear of being out of control.

Author: Virginia Andrews

Between the fear that something would happen and the hope that still it wouldn't, there is much more space than one thinks. On that narrow, hard, bare and dark space a lot of us spend their lives.

Author: Ivo Andric

You have to be careful not to let your fear stop you doing things. It's very exciting to test yourself.

Author: Francesca Annis

We poison our lives with fear of burglary and shipwreck, and, ask anyone, the house is never burgled, and the ship never goes down.

Author: Jean Anouilh

We fear the thing we want the most.

Author: Robert Anthony

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

Author: Aristotle

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

Author: Aristotle

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Author: Aristotle

Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

Author: Chet Atkins

Fools rush in where incumbents fear to tread.

Author: Norman Augustine

We can no longer let the threat of an early frost send a chill of fear throughout a large portion of our workforce. Diversification is the only answer.

Author: Alan Autry

I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.

Author: Saint Avila

The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.

Author: Richard Bach

Listen to what you know instead of what you fear.

Author: Richard Bach

Like the Spitfire it was immensely strong: a pilot had no need to fear the danger of pulling the wings off, no matter how desperate the situation became.

Author: Douglas Bader

One way of watering down the effects of violence is to approach it in a more lighthearted way. I don't mean to say that you laugh when somebody has their arm sawn off, but you can diffuse fear with humour.

Author: Colin Baker

The more knowledge you have, the greater will be your fear of Allah.

Author: Abu Bakr

I am very much against weapons in space. And I wish we could be spearheading that program to come to some kind of international agreement so that doesn't happen. That is my only - fear - in further space exploration like always, we hope it doesn't get abused.

Author: Scott Bakula

I have a fear of being boring.

Author: Christian Bale

Knight without fear and without reproach.

Author: Richard Barham

How could you fear a dearth? Have not mankind tho' slain by millions, millions left behind?

Author: Joel Barlow

Obama sounded like Al Gore on global warming. The more the case for man-made warming falls apart, the more hysterical Gore gets about an imminent catastrophe. The more public support his stimulus bill loses, the more Obama embraces fear-mongering.

Author: Fred Barnes

Events that are predestined require but little management. They manage themselves. They slip into place while we sleep, and suddenly we are aware that the thing we fear to attempt, is already accomplished.

Author: Amelia Barr

I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.

Author: Clara Barton

Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten.

Author: Mary Bateson

Television knows no night. It is perpetual day. TV embodies our fear of the dark, of night, of the other side of things.

Author: Jean Baudrillard

My greatest fear is flying. And I do a lot of flying, so that's a bummer.

Author: Kylie Bax

I quickly laugh at everything for fear of having to cry.

Author: Pierre Beaumarchais

I hasten to laugh at everything, for fear of being obliged to weep.

Author: Pierre Beaumarchais

In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.

Author: Simone Beauvoir

Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone.

Author: Martha Beck

Good and evil do not exist for me any more. The fear of evil is merely a mass projection here and on Earth.

Author: Hans Bender

It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.

Author: Georges Bernanos

The pressure to compete, the fear somebody else will make the splash first, creates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised.

Author: Carl Bernstein

The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one's children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.

Author: Bruno Bettelheim

An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.

Author: Otto Bismarck

My only fear is the unknown.

Author: David Blaine

Discipline is based on pride, on meticulous attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence. Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of the goal or the fear of failure.

Author: Gary Blair

I fear the carnival of crime is beginning on our border.

Author: Edward Blake

The country is not a democratic state. Therefore we fear that they might carry a recorder in their pocket or there may be bugs in the walls, and you cannot be absolutely sure that you get a straight testimony.

Author: Hans Blix

I don't think that anyone seriously fears that the world can be blown to pieces all together. But what one can fear and rightly so are regional things, like in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, the Korean Peninsula, borders in Africa, etc.

Author: Hans Blix

I can imagine that the Iraqis undertake the destruction out of fear. If they had denied it, if they had said no, that certainly would have played into the hands of those that would like to take armed action immediately. I have no illusions in that regard.

Author: Hans Blix

Over the next four years, we will be bold. We will be willing to experiment. We will not fear failure.

Author: Matt Blunt

But to be the best, you must face the best. And to overcome your fear, you must deal with the best.

Author: Barry Bonds

I have lived through many major hurricanes during my lifetime: Camille, Frederic, and Ivan, to name just a very few. However, never have I seen destruction, panic, and fear on this massive scale.

Author: Jo Bonner

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.

Author: Corrie Boom

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.

Author: Christian Bovee

He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear, but then again he doesn't know the meaning of most words.

Author: Bobby Bowden

The man who has ceased to fear has ceased to care.

Author: F. Bradley

We confess our bad qualities to others out of fear of appearing naive or ridiculous by not being aware of them.

Author: Gerald Brenan

I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.

Author: Louise Brown

The weeds keep multiplying in our garden, which is our mind ruled by fear. Rip them out and call them by name.

Author: Sylvia Browne

Definitely, it's a fear of failure that drives me.

Author: Jerry Bruckheimer

It may be you fear more to deliver judgment upon me than I fear judgment.

Author: Giordano Bruno

States can be deterred by the fear of retaliation; non-state organisations cannot by deterred at all.

Author: John Bruton

We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.

Author: Jean Bruyere

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all.

Author: Jean Bruyere

The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.

Author: William Bryan

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.

Author: Buddha

This fact lays on us - so long as the maintenance of good relations with Russia seems to us worth an effort - the duty of satisfying Russia that she has no need to fear any invasion of her sphere of interests on Germany's part.

Author: Bernhard Bulow

Hey, we all have our fear. Mine is bugs and lobsters!

Author: Brooke Burke

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Author: Edmund Burke

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.

Author: Robert Burns

Fear is the dark room where the Devil develops his negatives.

Author: Gary Busey

The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear - and they should be afraid, because freedom is on the march.

Author: George Bush

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

Author: George Bush

Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.

Author: Vannevar Bush

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

Author: Samuel Butler

This man is freed from servile bands, Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; Lord of himself, though not of lands, And leaving nothing, yet hath all.

Author: Lord Byron

It's fear of being afraid that frightens me more than anything else.

Author: Jerome Cady

Fear has nothing to do with cowardice. A fellow is only yellow when he lets his fear make him quit.

Author: Jerome Cady

Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness.

Author: John Calvin

My main frustration is the fear of cancer from low dose radiation, even by radiologists.

Author: John Cameron

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

Author: Albert Camus

The fear of burglars is not only the fear of being robbed, but also the fear of a sudden and unexpected clutch out of the darkness.

Author: Elias Canetti

There are only three sins - causing pain, causing fear, and causing anguish. The rest is window dressing.

Author: Roger Caras

I wish there were more true conversion, and then there would not be so much backsliding, and, for fear of suffering, living at ease, when there are so few to contend for Christ and His cause.

Author: Donald Cargill

The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.

Author: Thomas Carlyle

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.

Author: Dale Carnegie

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it... that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.

Author: Dale Carnegie

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

Author: Dale Carnegie

Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.

Author: Dale Carnegie

When you gain 50 pounds during pregnancy like I did, you fear that you'll never get back in shape.

Author: Charisma Carpenter

It's not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

Author: Jimmy Carter

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

Author: Jimmy Carter

To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action, when there's more reason to fear than to hope.

Author: Miguel Cervantes

Fear has many eyes and can see things underground.

Author: Miguel Cervantes

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

Author: Chanakya

Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house.

Author: John Cheever

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.

Author: Anton Chekhov

I know what actors fear, what they like; I know how to get things out of them and I listen to them better, since I've been there.

Author: Joan Chen

There is a kind of fear, approaching a panic, that's spreading through the Baby Boom Generation, which has suddenly discovered that it will have to provide for its own retirement.

Author: Ron Chernow

It is my hope and my belief that you will be able to report that I died with dignity, without animal fear and without bravado. I owe that much to myself.

Author: Caryl Chessman

When strong, be merciful, if you would have the respect, not the fear of your neighbors.

Author: Chilon

Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.

Author: Deepak Chopra

In spite of your fear, do what you have to do.

Author: Chin-Ning Chu

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

Author: Winston Churchill

True nobility is exempt from fear.

Author: Marcus Cicero

Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.

Author: Marcus Cicero

Crime in full glory consolidates authority by the sacred fear it inspires.

Author: Emile Cioran

As president of the United States, my top priority will be to keep America safe. We're going to go after the terrorist networks. We're going to go after Osama bin Laden. We are not going to live in fear in this country.

Author: Wesley Clark

Don't fear anything for your letters, they are burnt one by one and I hope you do the same with mine.

Author: Camille Claudel

I fear that CAFTA will accelerate the demise of these domestic textile jobs.

Author: Howard Coble

Almost all the ideas we have about being a man or being a woman are so burdened with pain, anxiety, fear and self-doubt. For many of us, the confusion around this question is excruciating.

Author: Andrew Cohen

Fear attracts attack.

Author: Edwin Cole

The only prejudice I've found anywhere in TV is in some advertising agencies, and there isn't so much prejudice as just fear.

Author: Nat Cole

We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.

Author: Charles Colton

No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Saviour, if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service.

Author: Christopher Columbus

I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.

Author: Nadia Comaneci

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear.

Author: William Congreve

The dread of lonliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married.

Author: Cyril Connolly

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.

Author: Cyril Connolly

Cruelty is softened by fear, not pity.

Author: Mason Cooley

If I have resistance to something, it means there's something wrong. The resistance to me is a sign of fear.

Author: Billy Corgan

You pretend to be more eccentric than you actually are because you fear you are an interchangeable cog.

Author: Doug Coupland

Fear can be conquered. I became a better person and a better football player when I learned that lesson.

Author: Roger Craig

The filmmaking process is a very personal one to me, I mean it really is a personal kind of communication. It's not as though its a study of fear or any of that stuff.

Author: David Cronenberg

I would not fear nor wish my fate, but boldly say each night, tomorrow let my sun his beams display, or in clouds hide them; I have lived today.

Author: Abraham Crowley

Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.

Author: Aleister Crowley

Today's youth cannot miss something they have never known, but I fear that there are no current fictional characters whose impact and influence will last with such abiding affection into their 'sore and yellow' as this splendid man's creations have in mine!

Author: Peter Cushing

A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.

Author: Roald Dahl

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

Author: Salvador Dali

One of the things I realized early in my career is that you do what you believe, in knowing that if you don't, you will never like yourself. When you compromise out of fear or ambition, it eats inside you.

Author: Samuel Dash

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

Author: Miles Davis

You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.

Author: Sammy Davis, Jr.

Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures.

Author: W. Deming

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.

Author: Chauncey Depew

Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness.

Author: Indra Devi

I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.

Author: Joan Didion

Now nobody get nervous, you ain't got nothing to fear. You're being robbed by the John Dillinger Gang, that's the best there is!

Author: John Dillinger

Fear makes us feel our humanity.

Author: Benjamin Disraeli