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fear quotes

  • Oderint, dum metuant. Let them hate, so long as they fear.

    -Accius
    Quoted in Seneca Dialogues,'De Ira'.

  • He had a fear of the dead, and of all inanimate things, rising up around himto claim him; it isthe fearof thepre- eminently solitary child and solitary man.

    - Peter Ackroyd
      Of Charles Dickens. Dickens, prologue.

  • Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting, For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather!

    -William Allingham
      'The Fairies'.

  • Tragedy isthus a representationof anactionthat isworth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude†by means of pityand fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

    -Aristotle
    c.330  BC  Poetics, ch.6.

  • O born in days when wits were fresh and clear, And life ran gaily as the sparklingThames: Before this strange disease of modern life, With its sick hurry, its divided aims, Its heads o'ertaxed, its palsied hearts, was rife Fly hence, our contact fear!

    - Matthew Arnold
      Poems:  A New Edition,'The Scholar-Gipsy', l.201^6.

  • Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      Essays, no.2,'Of Death'.

  • There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and mastersthefearofdeath. And therefore death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      Essays, no.2,'Of Death'.

  • It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      Essays, no.19,'Of Empire'.

  • Doubt is a necessary precondition tomeaningful action. Fear is the great mover in the end.

    - Donald Barthelme
      Sadness,'The Rise of Capitalism'.

  • And always keep a hold of Nurse For fear of finding something worse.

    - (Joseph) Hilaire Pierre Belloc
      Cautionary  Tales,'Jim'.

  • An editor must always be with the peoplethink with themfeel with themand he need fear nothing, he will always be rightalways be strongalways free.

    -James Gordon, Snr Bennett
      In the Courier and Enquirer,12 Nov.

  • In Place of Fear.

    - Aneurin Bevan
      Title of his book about disarmament.

  •    The L is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the L is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDORDPsalms 27:1.

  •    Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.One thing have I desired of the L, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the L all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the L, and to inquire in his temple.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDORDORDPsalms 27:3^4.

  • O taste and see that the L isgood: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.O fear the L, ye his saints: for there isno wanttothemthat fear him.The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the L shall not want any good thing.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDORDORDPsalms 34:8^10.

  • O worship the L in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDPsalms 96:9.

  • For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is fromthe west, so far hath heremoved our transgressions from us.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Psalms103:11^12.

  • The fear of the L is the beginning of wisdom.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDPsalms111:10.

  • Better is little with the fear of the L than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDProverbs15:16^17.

  • Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Isaiah 29:13.

  •    The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord G106 hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    OD Amos 3:8.

  • Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of themshall not fall ontheground without your Father.But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew10:29^31.

  • Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Romans13:7^8.

  • Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Philippians 2:12.

  • There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
      John 4:18.

  • Dominus illuminatio mea, et salus mea, quem timebo? The Lord is the source of my light and my safety, so whom shall I fear?

    -Bible (Vulgate)
    Psalm 26:1.

  • Often, the fear of one evil leadsus into inflicting onethat is worse.

    - Nicolas Boileau (Despre  aux)
      L'Art poe  tique.

  • No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere: I see Heaven's glories shine, And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

    - EmilyJane Bronte« 
      'No Coward Soul is Mine', in Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

  • No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting than fear. Burke

    - Edmund Burke
      On the Sublime and Beautiful, pt.2, section 2.

  •    The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.

    - Edmund Burke
      On Conciliation with  America.

  •   Pity is lost in rage and fear.

    -Thomas Carlyle
      History of the French Revolution, vol.3, bk.2, ch.7.

  • Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.

    - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
      'The Rime of the  Ancient Mariner', pt.6.

  • Ah Fear! Ah frantic Fear! I see, I see thee near.

    -William Collins
      Odes on Several Descriptive and  Allegoric Subjects,'Ode to Fear', l.5^6.

  • As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers, so those with an irrational fearof life become publishers.

    - Cyril Vernon Connolly
      Enemies of Promise, ch.10.

  • Subconsciously every one was, of course, fearful that he himself would go nutseveryone with the exception of those who had already gone nuts, who were in the wholly pleasant situation of having no fear.

    - e e pen name of  Edward Estlin Cummings cummings
      The Enormous Room, ch.5.

  • Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear, To be we know not what, we know not where.

    -John Dryden
      Aureng-Zebe, act 4, sc.1.

  • Neither fear nor courage saves us.Unnatural vices Are fathered by our heroism.Virtues Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.

    -T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot
      'Gerontion'.

  • And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

    -T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot
      The Waste Land, pt.1,'The Burial of the Dead'.

  • He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

    - RalphWaldo Emerson
      Society and Solitude,'Courage'.

  • People out of work are not given to talking much about the one thing on their minds.You only sense by indirection, degrees of anger, shades of humiliation and echoes of fear.

    -Walker Evans
    Quoted in Fortune,11 Feb1980.

  • You need have no fear of any failure.

    - Percy Harrison Fawcett
      Last words written to his wife. Collected in Brian Fawcett (ed) Exploration Fawcett (1953).

  • Any manwhose love of horses isstronger thanhis fear of being an absurdity is all right with me.

    -50 Cent originally  CurtisJackson
      Rodwell. The Wars, pt.2, section 8.

  • Why fear death? It's the most beautiful adventure in life.

    - Charles Frohman
      Last words, paraphrasing a line in  J M Barrie's Peter Pan, said to the actress Rita  Jolivet as the Lusitania went down after being torpedoed by a German submarine,7 May.

  •    I never dared be radical when young For fear it would make me conservative when old.

    - Robert Lee Frost
      'Ten Mills,1. Precaution'.

  • In fear begotten, I begot in fear. Would you have had me cast fear out So that you should not be?

    - Robert von Ranke Graves
      'Parents to Child'.

  • Thereisa certainbasis oftruth inthefear thatthe Russian government is beginning to have of communism, for communism isTsarist autocracy turned upside down.

    - Alexander Ivanovich Herzen
    ^7  Byloe i dumy (My Past and Thoughts, translated by Constance Garnett,1924).

  • We are nearer today to the ideal of the abolition of poverty and fear from the lives of men and women than ever before in any land.

    - Herbert Clark Hoover
      Presidential campaign speech, 22 Oct.

  • Now hollow fires burn out to black And lamps are guttering low. Square your shoulders, lift your pack, And leave your friends and go. Oh, never fear, man, nought's to dread Look not left nor right. In all the endless road you tread, There's nothing but the night.

    - A(lfred) E(dward) Housman
    Quoted in Bernard Levin Hannibal's Footsteps (1985).

  • Cultured people practise self-examination with trepidation and fear.

    -I Ching   c.2000
    c.2000  BC  I Ching, no.51 (translated by Thomas Cleary).

  • I feared for her as I loved her, and the fear intensified the love.

    - CliveVivian Leopold James
      On the deathof Diana, Princess of Wales. In the NewYorker, 15 Sep.

  •    Fear of Fifty.

    - Erica ne  e Mann Jong
       Title of memoir.

  •    Well, I will scourge those apes, And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror, As large as is the stage whereon we act; Where they shall see the time's deformity Anatomised in every nerve, and sinew, With constant courage, and contempt of fear.

    - Ben Jonson
      Every Man out of His Humour, Induction.

  • A man of your head and hair should owe more to that reverend ceremony, and not mountthemarriage bed like atown-bull, ora mountain-goat; but stay the dueseason and ascend it then with religion and fear.

    - Ben Jonson
    ^10  Epicoene, act 3, sc.5.

  • The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end. 450

    - Ben Jonson
    Of Francis Bacon. Timber: or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter (published1640).

  • Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Together let us explore the stars.

    -John F(itzgerald) Kennedy
      Inaugural address, Washington, 20  Jan.

  • Mankind, fear your Lord, who created you of a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them scattered abroad many men and women; and fear God by whom you demand one of another, and the wombs; surely God ever watches over you.

    -The Koran
    Sura 4, l.1.

  • O believers, fear God, and be with the truthful ones.

    -The Koran
    Sura 9, l.119.

  • They fulfil their vows, and fear a day whose evil is upon the wing; they give food, for the love of Him, to the needy, the orphan, the captive: 'We feed you only for the Face of God; we desire no recompense from you, no thankfulness.'

    -The Koran
    Sura 76, l.7^9.

  • Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear; Of his strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear.

    -Walter Savage Landor
      'Death stands above me'.

  • Life is first boredom, then fear.

    - Philip Arthur Larkin
      'Dockery and Son'.

  • The love of justice in most men is simply the fear of suffering injustice.

    - Fran c° ois, 6th Duc de La Rochefoucauld
      Re  flexions, ou sentences et maximes morales, no.78.

  • Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding, Loudly the war-cries arise on the gale, Fleetly the steed by Loc Suilig is bounding To join the thick squadrons in Saimear's green vale. On, every mountaineer, Strangers to flight and fear: Rush to the standard of dauntless Red Hugh! Bonnought and gallowglass, Throng from each mountain-pass! On for old ErinO'Donnell abu!

    - M(ichael) J(oseph) McCann
      The Spirit of the Nation,'O'Donnell  Abu'.

  • There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away.

    - Norman Kingsley Mailer
      Cannibals and Christians,'My Hope For  America'.

  • Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate the event, my nature is That I incline to hope, rather than fear, And gladly banish squint suspicion.

    -John Milton
      Comus,  A Mask, l.410^13.

  • His trust was with the eternal to be deemed Equal in strength, and rather than be less Cared not to be at all; with that care lost Went all his fear.

    -John Milton
      Of Moloch. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.2, l.46^9.

  •    I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go.

    -Will Rogers
      TheWaking,'TheWaking'.

  • Let me assert my belief that the only thing that we have to fear is fear itselfnameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror that paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

    - Franklin D(elano) Roosevelt
      Inaugural address, 4 Mar.

  • In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms.The first isfreedom of speech and expression, everywhere in the world.The second is the freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, everywhere in the world.The third is freedom from want† The fourth is freedom from fear.

    - Franklin D(elano) Roosevelt
      Third inaugural address, 6 Jan.

  •    There is a lurking fear that some things are not meant 'to be known', that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.

    - Carl Edward Sagan
      Broca's Brain.

  • The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me down to lie In pastures green: he leadeth me the quiet waters by. My soul he doth restore again: and me to walk doth make Within the paths of righteousness, ev'n for his own name's sake. Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale, yet will I fear no ill: For thou art with me; and thy rod and staff me comfort still.

    -Scottish Metrical Psalms
      Translation of Psalm 23:1^4.

  • The National Debt is a very Good Thing, and it would be dangerous to pay it off for fear of Political Economy.

    -J(ulian)
    1066 and AllThat.

  • To survive in grand prix racing, you need to be afraid. Fear is an important feeling. It helps you to race longer and live longer. See Berger 79:93.

    - Ayrton Senna
      In TheTimes, 3 May.

  • Still as he fled, his eye was backward cast, As if his fear still followed him behind.

    - Edmund Spenser
      The Faerie Queen, bk.1, canto 9, stanza 21.

  • My life has crept so long on a broken wing Through cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear, That I come to be grateful at last for a little thing.

    -Tennyson
      Maud, pt.3, sect.6, stanza1, l.1^3.

  • Yet I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.

    -James pseudonym 'BV',ByssheVanolis Thomson
      The City of Dreadful Night, pt.4.

  •    To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the innocent sleep, Great nature's second course, And makes us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. There's the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

    - Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens Twain

  • A useful word previously unknown to me: 'ergophobia', meaning 'fear or hatred of work'. At last I can define myself in one word.

    - Kenneth Tynan
    The Diaries of KennethTynan (2001), entry for 26 Oct1975.

  • How anyone can fear that the British electorate, whatever mistakesitcanmake or maycondone, canever go too far or too fast is incomprehensible† The Labour Party, when in due course it comes to be entrusted with power, will naturally not want to do everything at once. Once we facethenecessityof putting our principles into execution from one end of the kingdom to the other, the inevitabilityof gradualness cannot failtobe appreciated.

    - SidneyJames Webb
      Labour Party Conference, 26 Jun.

  • 'Tisjust likea summerbirdcageinagarden; thebirdsthat are without despair toget in, and thebirdsthat are within despair, and are in a consumption, for fear they shall never get out.

    -John Webster
      TheWhite Devil, act1, sc.2.

  •    Love mixed with fear is sweetness.

    -John Webster
      The Duchess of Malfi, act 3, sc.2.

  • I play with the fear of letting people down. That's what motivates me.

    -Jonny Wilkinson
      Quoted on www.bbc.co.uk.

  • Well-founded fear, whichtakes onethrough the valleyof the shadow of death without abandoning one there, is what makes the worst of worse journeys; the situation is made all the more intense when the fear is somehow mingled with delight.

    - George Woodcock
    'MyWorstJourneys', collected in Keath Fraser (ed) Worst Journeys:The Picador Book of Travel (1991).

  • Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.

    -William Wordsworth
    ^1805  The Prelude, bk.1, l.301^2 (published1850).

  • The fear that kills; And hope that is unwilling to be fed. 926

    -William Wordsworth
      'Resolution and Independence', stanza17 (published 1807).

  • Not Chaos, not The darkest pit of lowest Erebus Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out By help of dreamscan breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man My haunt, and the main region of my song.

    -William Wordsworth
      'The Excursion', preface, l.35^41.

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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