Fear quotes
2.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside fear — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"When a man grows old his joy Grows more deep day after day, His empty heart is full at length But he has need of all that strength Because of the increasing Night That opens her mystery and fright."
"According to the bible, Heaven is completely perfect and Hell is completely evil. In Heaven, in order to keep everything completely perfect, everyone in it would have to follow a long, specific set of rules for it to be perfect. Heaven is prison. In Hell, everyone is already evil there, so no rules need to be set to make it completely evil. Hell is freedom."
"Much of what we call evil is due entirely to the way men take the phenomenon. It can so often be converted into a bracing and tonic good by a simple change of the sufferer's inner attitude from one of fear to one of fight; its string can so often depart and turn into a relish when, after vainly seeking to shun it, we agree to face about and bear it."
"He spake of love, such love as spirits feel In worlds whose course is equable and pure; No fears to beat away, no strife to heal,- The past unsighed for, and the future sure."
"Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them. Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed. I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room. The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yet hug it in love. My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted."
"Fear is a great instructor."
"Fear is cruel and mean. The political reigns of terror have been reigns of madness and malignity,--a total perversion of opinion;society is upside down, and its best men are thought too bad to live."
"Fear is the proof of a degenerate mind."
"The flocks fear the wolf, the crops the storm, and the trees the wind."
"I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts."
"Don't trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts. -Equo ne credite, Teucri. Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"
"A man afraid of death will never play the part of a live man."
"Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear and, behold, do ye now complain that ye lack FREEDOM!"
"All Chaos was once yer kingdom; verily, held ye dominion over the entire Pentaverse, but today ye was sore afraid in dark coners, nooks, and sink holes."
"I've met talespinners before, Jake, and they're all cut more or less from the same cloth. They tell tales because they're afraid of life."
"I was technically a Valley Girl, even though I absolutely dreaded being called that. I really hated the idea that I was a Valley Girl"
"I am terrified by this dark thing That sleeps in me; All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity."
"The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right."
"This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away."
"Children today laugh at fathers who tell them about dragons. It is necessary to make fear a required subject; otherwise children will never learn it."
