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courage

  (kûr'ĭj, kŭr'-) pronunciation
courage

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n.

The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.

[Middle English corage, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor, heart.]


 
 
Thesaurus: courage

noun

    The quality of mind enabling one to face danger or hardship resolutely: braveness, bravery, courageousness, dauntlessness, doughtiness, fearlessness, fortitude, gallantry, gameness, heart, intrepidity, intrepidness, mettle, nerve, pluck, pluckiness, spirit, stoutheartedness, undauntedness, valiance, valiancy, valiantness, valor. Informal spunk, spunkiness. Slang gut (used in plural), gutsiness, moxie. See fear/courage.

 
Idioms: courage

In addition to the idiom beginning with courage, also see Dutch courage; pluck up (one's courage).


 
Antonyms: courage

n

Definition: boldness, braveness
Antonyms: cowardice, faint-heartedness, fear, meekness, timidity, weakness


 

An action is courageous if it is an attempt to achieve an end despite penalties, risks, costs, or difficulties of sufficient gravity to deter most people. Similarly a state such as cheerfulness is courageous if it is sustained in spite of such difficulties. A courageous person is characteristically able to attempt such actions or maintain such states. For Aristotle, courage is dependent on sound judgement, for it needs to be known whether the end justifies the risk incurred. Similarly, courage is not the absence of fear (which may be a vice), but the ability to feel the appropriate amount of fear; courage is a mean between timidity and overconfidence.

 
Word Tutor: courage
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: To feel the fear and still be able to face danger, pain, or trouble.

pronunciation Live courage, breathe courage and give courage. — D.G. Mukerji.

 
Quotes About: Courage

Quotes:

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air." - John Quincy Adams

"Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts ;in a uniform manner." - Joseph Addison

"There is another side to chivalry. If it dispenses leniency, it may with equal justification invoke control." - Freda Adler

"As a rock on the seashore he standeth firm, and the dashing of the waves disturbeth him not. He raiseth his head like a tower on a hill, and the arrows of fortune drop at his feet. In the instant of danger, the courage of his heart here, and scorn to fly." - Akhenaton

"Often the test of courage is not to die but to live." - Vittorio, Conte Di Alfieri

"Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor." - James Allen

See more famous quotes about Courage

 
Wikipedia: courage
Fortitudo, by Sandro Botticelli
Enlarge
Fortitudo, by Sandro Botticelli

Courage, also known as bravery and fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation. It can be divided into "physical courage" — in the face of physical pain, hardship, and threat of death — and "moral courage" — in the face of shame, scandal, and discouragement.

Theories of courage

As a virtue, courage is covered extensively in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, its vice of deficiency being cowardice, and its vice of excess being recklessness.

It is well understood that physical and moral courage matters in the military, and there are ample illustrations of courage in religion, sometimes to the point of martyrdom.

Courage is one of the Four Cardinal Virtues (along with Prudence, Justice, and Temperance) in Roman Catholicism. "Cardinal" meaning "pivotal" is applied to this virtue because to possess any virtue, a person must be able to sustain it in the face of difficulty. In Catholicism and Anglicanism, courage is also one of the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The precise view of what constitutes courage not only varies among cultures, but among individuals. For instance, some define courage as lacking fear in a situation that would normally generate it. Others, in contrast, hold that courage requires one to have fear and then overcome it.

There are also more subtle distinctions in the definition of courage. For example, some distinguish between courage and foolhardiness in that a courageous person overcomes a justifiable fear for an even more noble purpose. If the fear is not justifiable or if the purpose is not noble, then the courage is either false or foolhardy.

Moral courage, more than physical courage, is widely debated. It is frequently regarded as courage in following one's own ethics which may result in the individual feeling isolated from colleagues, or even family. Also moral courage is facing shame, scandal, prejudice or even discouragement and defeating it.

Kierkegaard opposed courage to angst, while Paul Tillich opposed an existential courage to be to non-being, fundamentally equating it with religion.

"Courage is the self-affirmation of being in spite of the fact of non-being. It is the act of the individual self in taking the anxiety of non-being upon itself by affirm­ing itself ... in the anxiety of guilt and condemnation. ... every courage to be has openly or covertly a religious root. For religion is the state of being grasped by the power of being itself."

Defenition: the defintion of courage is, being brave and having a go

J. R. R. Tolkien in his 1936 lecture Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics identified a "Northern 'theory of courage'", the heroic or "virtuous pagan" insistence to do the right thing even in the face of certain defeat without promise of reward or salvation:

It is the strength of the northern mythological imagination that it faced this problem, put the monsters in the centre, gave them victory but no honour, and found a potent and terrible solution in naked will and courage. 'As a working theory absolutely impregnable.' So potent is it, that while the older southern imagination has faded for even into literary ornament, the northern has power, as it were, to revive its spirit even in our own times. It can work, as it did even with the goðlauss viking, without gods: martial heroism as its own end. (p. 25f.)

Virtuous pagan heroism or courage in this sense is "trusting in your own strength", as observed by Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology,

men who, turning away in utter disgust and doubt from the heathen faith, placed their reliance on their own strength and virtue. Thus in the Sôlar lioð 17 we read of Vêbogi and Râdey â sik þau trûðu, "in themselves they trusted",

This "virtuous godlessness" is the nontheism of Pema Chodron, the "relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves [...] finally realizing there is no babysitter you can count on."[1]

Civil courage

Civil courage (sometimes also referred to as 'Social courage') is defined by many different standards, but the term is usually referred to when civilians stand up against something that is deemed unjust and evil, knowing that the consequences of their action might lead to their death, injury, or any other negative effect.

In many countries, such as France and Germany, civil courage is enforced by law; this means that if a crime is committed in public, the public is obliged to act, either by alerting the authorities, or by intervening in the conflict. If the crime is committed in a private environment, those that witness the crime are either to report it, or try to stop it.

Valour

Crest of the Royal Military College of Canada
Enlarge
Crest of the Royal Military College of Canada

Valour is the moral strength required to perform one’s duties honestly. It is not physical courage. Very few will have the opportunity to display a disregard for their personal safety under hazardous conditions. Rather, valour is the concept that bridges the ideas of truth and duty. It is the moral courage to live honestly and to do one’s duties, no matter the circumstances. Source - Royal Military College of Canada Officer Cadet Handbook p,15.

Bystander effect

Main article: Bystander effect

The death of Kitty Genovese in 1964, Queens, New York, is often cited as a classic example of civil-courage failure. It is said that during a half-hour long attack, Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in full view of thirty-eight witnesses, while none interfered. (Accounts differ, though; none of the witnesses claims to have witnessed the entire attack, many claim that they were not aware that Genovese was in danger, and some shouted at the attacker and called authorities.)

Criminologists argue that such passivity is a result of "big-city life," cultural emphasis on individualism, or a common expectation that "someone else" will intervene. Others believe that simple cowardice is another explanation of passivity.

Symbolism

Its accompanying animal is the lion. Often, Fortitude is depicted as having tamed the ferocious lion. Cf. e.g. the Tarot trump called Strength. It is sometimes seen as a depiction of the Catholic Church's triumph over sin. It also is a symbol in some cultures as a savior of the people who live in a community with sin and a corrupt church or religious body.

References

  • Catholic Encyclopedia "Fortitude"
  • Summa Theologica "Second Part of the Second Part" See Questions 123-140
  • Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be (London: Collins, 1952), Chapter VI, "Courage and Transcendence", pp.152-183.
  • Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: The Free Press, 1973).
  • Douglas N. Walton, Courage: A philosophical investigation (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986).
  • Stephen Palmquist, Angst and the Paradox of Courage (2000) [1]

See also

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Translations: Translations for: Courage

Dansk (Danish)
n. - mod

idioms:

  • the courage of one's convictions    sine meningers mod

Nederlands (Dutch)
moed

Français (French)
n. - courage

idioms:

  • have the courage of one's convictions    avoir le courage de ses convictions

Deutsch (German)
n. - Mut

idioms:

  • have the courage of one's convictions    seinem Standpunkt treu sein

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - θάρρος, κουράγιο, ανδρεία

idioms:

  • the courage of one's convictions    το θάρρος των πεποιθήσεών μου

Italiano (Italian)
coraggio

idioms:

  • pluck up courage    farsi coraggio
  • the courage of one's convictions    il coraggio delle proprie idee

Português (Portuguese)
n. - coragem (f)

idioms:

  • pluck up courage    ser corajoso
  • the courage of one's convictions    ter coragem de manter suas convicções

Русский (Russian)
храбрость

idioms:

  • pluck up courage    собираться с духом
  • the courage of one's convictions    действовать согласно своим убеждениям

Español (Spanish)
n. - coraje, valor, valentía

idioms:

  • have the courage of one's convictions    ser consecuente con sus principios, tener el coraje de las propias convicciones

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mod, tapperhet

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
勇气, 精神

idioms:

  • the courage of one's convictions    按自己意念说, 按自己意念做的勇气

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 勇氣, 精神

idioms:

  • the courage of one's convictions    按自己意念說, 按自己意念做的勇氣

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 용기

idioms:

  • the courage of one's convictions    자기 소신대로 행동하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 勇気

idioms:

  • the courage of one's convictions    自分の信ずるところに従う

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شجاعه, بساله, اقدام, جرأة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אומץ-לב‬


 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Courage" Read more
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