31 inspiring quotes to help you confront and overcome fear

There are so many things to be afraid of especially right now as we all are going through a massive health crisis — change, uncertainty, failure, adversity, financial meltdown, the unknown. You can either let these fears stop you on your tracks and keep you from going after your most important goals, or you can muster the courage within you and face those fears head on. 

Victories and opportunities lie on the other side of fear, so if you want to achieve exceptional success, you must train yourself to do the things that scare you. There’s no other way.

In honor of Halloween, here are 31 encouraging quotes about how to understand fear, confront it, overcome it and leverage it for our greater success. Always remember, FEAR is nothing but False Evidence Appearing Real. You are braver and stronger than you think; you just need to tap into the courage within you. These words will inspire you to cultivate fearlessness, take risks and aim high. Happy Halloween!

1. “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
2. “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
3. We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. — Seneca
4. “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
5. “Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” — Yoda
6. “He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. “We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” — Marilyn Monroe
8. “Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
9. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt
10. “Fear isn’t an excuse to come to a standstill. It’s the impetus to step up and strike.” – Arthur Ashe
11. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie
12. “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” – Rudyard Kipling
13. “Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.”  – Orison Swett Marden
14. “Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.” – Elizabeth I
15. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
16. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela
17. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
18. “To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.” – Katherine Paterson
19. “Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.” – William Shakespeare
20. “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
21. “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” – Rosa Parks
22. “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell
23. “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” – Babe Ruth
24. “Living with fear stops us from taking risks, and if you don’t go out on the branch, you’re never going to get the best fruit.” – Sarah Parish
25. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
26. “Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious to even fail.” – Bruce Lee
27. “The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.” – Oprah Winfrey
28. “Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.” – Napoleon Hill
29. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” – Eleanor Roosevelt
30. “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” – Helen Keller
31. “Fear isn’t an excuse to come to a standstill. It’s the impetus to step up and strike.” – Arthur Ashe