140 Inspiring Quotes About Facing Fear And Overcoming Fear

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

Facing fear is never easy, but it’s a necessary part of life. It can be as simple as facing your fear of public speaking to something more serious like facing your fears about death.

We all have our own unique fears and challenges that we face over the course of our lives, and we need to learn how to overcome them, or at least work through them, to become happy and healthy people.

We may be walking on thin ice some of the time but we must step over it to get to where we want to be. The more we hesitate, the more paralyzed we get because inaction creates terror.

This paralyzing fear can even lead to even more serious mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.

Below we have a great collection of inspirational quotes to help you face your fears head on.

Quotes About Facing Fear Will Help You

“Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil” – Aristotle

“Fear is a liar.” – Anonymous

“You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.” – Sammy Davis, Jr.

“The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.” – John C. Maxwell

“The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground.” – Anonymous

”The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror! “ – Joyce Meyer

”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

“Feel the fear and do it anyway.” – Susan Jeffers

“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

“Fear breeds fear.” – Byron Janis

“When you’re scared, you stay as you are!” – Stephen Richards

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

“If I had just a little bit of wisdom I should walk the great path and fear only straying from it.” – Lao Tzu

“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will” – Suzy Kassem

”If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” – Sun Tzu 

“To overcome fear, here’s all you have to do: realize the fear is there, and do the action you fear anyway.” – Peter McWilliams

“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” – Louis E. Boone

“Fear has its use, but cowardice has none.” – Gandhi

“Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.” – Napoleon Hill

“Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.” – Marilyn Ferguson

“Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” – Japanese Proverb

“No man is a failure who is enjoying life.” – William Feather

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” –Theodore Roosevelt

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

”Don’t let fear or insecurity stop you from trying new things. Believe in yourself. Do what you love. And most importantly, be kind to others, even if you don’t like them.” – Stacy London

“He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” – Dale Carnegie

“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” – Babe Ruth

“Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasures.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius

“Fear of self is the greatest of all terrors, the deepest of all dread, the commonest of all mistakes. From it grows failure. Because of it, life is a mockery. Out of it comes despair.” – David Seasbury

“I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.” – John Keats

”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

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard

“Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.” – W. Clement Stone

“Your fears are a kind of prison that confines you within a limited range of action. The less you fear, the more power you will have and the more fully you will live.” – Robert Greene

“Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” – Anonymous

“There is no illusion greater than fear.” – Lao Tzu

“What you are afraid to do is a clear indication of the next thing you need to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

”Living with fear stops us taking risks, and if you don’t go out on the branch, you’re never going to get the best fruit.” – Sarah Parish

“Fear is a habit; so is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resignation. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves: I can. I will.” – Anonymous

”Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” – Jim Morrison

“Where fear is, happiness is not.” – Seneca

“Do not take counsel of your fears.” – George Patton

“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 have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“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

“Fear is the needle that pierces us that it may carry a thread to bind us to heaven.” – James Hastings

“Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.” – Mark Twain

“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” – Helen Keller

“Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.” – D.L. Moody

“We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” – Marilyn Monroe

“Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.” – Zig Ziglar

“Fear has its use, but cowardice has none.” – Gandhi

“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.” – Dale Carnegie

“Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence.”- Rumi

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon

“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.” – James F. Byrnes

”The key to growth is acknowledging your fear of the unknown and jumping in anyway.” – Jen Sincero

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” – Les Brown

“A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.” – Michel de Montaigne

“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

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

“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

“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.” – Aristotle

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” – Napoleon Hill

”If you go deeper and deeper into your own heart, you’ll be living in a world with less fear, isolation and loneliness.” – Sharon Salzberg

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda

“No power so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” – Edmund Burke

”I have a very positive attitude in life. My insecurity, fear and need to know about tomorrow has fortunately eased. What is going to happen will happen anyway. So why break my head over it?” – Katrina Kaif

“Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.” – Dale Carnegie

“Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.” – Emma Donoghue

“Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.” – Epictetus

”How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.” – Florence Nightingale

“Fear is the enemy of logic.” – Frank Sinatra

“Fear is a friend of exceptional people.” – Cus D’Amato

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin

“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.” – James Stephens

”Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.” – Bear Grylls

“For it is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship.” – Epictetus

”Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.” – Michael Jordan

“Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.” – Douglas Horton

“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

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.” – Dale Carnegie

“Face your fears, pursue your ambitions, and become the hero you are destined to be.” – Josh Kaufman

“Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it.” – Henry S. Haskins

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” – Dorothy Thompson

“Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.” – W.Clement Stone

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chan

“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

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield

“People living deeply have no fear of death.” – Anais Nin

“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” – Shannon L. Alder

“Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom.” – Mary Ferguson

“Fear has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’ The choice is yours.” – Zig Ziglar

”I say I am stronger than fear.” – Malala Yousafzai

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

“Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it.” – Robert F. Kennedy

”Ignorance is the parent of fear.” – Herman Melville

”Don’t fear, just live right.” – Neal A. Maxwell

“Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the conquest of it.” – Anonymous

“Only when we accept fear will we have freedom.” – Shane Parrish

“Sometimes, when we want something so badly, we fear failure more than we fear being without that thing.” – Matthew J. Kirby

“Just like in life, we need to overcome our fears before exploring the next adventure.” – M. Liz Boyle

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.” – André Gide

“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” – H. Jackson Browne

“Your choices define you. Don’t let fear be your definition.” – Tom Bilyeu

“Where fear is present, wisdom cannot be.” – Lacantius

“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

“Fear is the prison of the heart.” – Anonymous

“Extreme fear can neither fight nor fly.” – William Shakespeare

“Worry gives a small thing a big shadow.” – Swedish Proverb

“Do not let your fears choose your destiny.” – Anonymous

“Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.” – Michael Pritchard

“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

“Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.” – Orison Swett Margen

“Fear is a mile high, a mile wide, and paper thin.” – Unknown

“I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.” – William Allen White

“The fear of facing your fears is harder to overcome than the fear itself.” – Anonymous

“The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost

“Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.” – Martin Luther King

“Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato

“Fear is never a reason for quitting; it is only an excuse.” – Norman Vincent Peale

“Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.” – Publilis Syrus

“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” – Robert Lewis Stevenson

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott

“Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile… initially scared me to death.” – Betty Bender

“I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.” – Taylor Swift

“You become wealthy when you stop trying to look rich. You become educated when you stop trying to look smart. You become calm when you stop trying to avoid fear.” – Maxime Lagacé

“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

“Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there.” – Chuck Palahniuk

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell

“Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop.”- Usman B. Asif

“Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.” – Unknown

“Great fear is concealed under daring.” – Lucan

“Fear is an insidious and deadly thing. It can warp judgment, freeze reflexes, breed mistakes. Worse, it’s contagious.” – Jimmy Stewart

“Somebody should tell us right at the start of our lives that we are dying. Then we might live to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.” – Michael Landon

“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

“Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic”  – Elizabeth May

“If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. – Robert Louis Stevenson

We hope you enjoyed reading as much as you got inspired by the quotes about facing fear.

Which is one is your favorite quote? Do we share with us in the comments.