The standard of courage are “acts that risk life and limb or other very serious personal injuries for the sake of others or to uphold a virtue” (pg 14).
“Courage is like love. It must have hope to nourish it” - Napoleon, pg 20
“Courage is what Winston Churchill called, ‘the first of human qualities . . . because it guarantees all the others” (pg 39).
“It is love that makes us willing to sacrifice, love that gives us courage” (pg 43).
“You must do the thing you cannot do” (pg 47).
“All problems, personal, national, or combat, become smaller if you don’t dodge them” (pg 49).
“It takes courage to defend your own dignity; sometimes it requires extraordinary heroism. Yet often its wellspring is anger and wounded pride, a source we can’t always relay upon to incite us to action. I am familiar with that kind of courage, and it took me many years to recognize its limitations. It can be used up more quickly than you might have imagined when your sense of honor is self-absorbed, inert, not galvanized by empathy for the experiences of others” (pg 106).
“It takes great courage to defend the dignity of others . . . they are the uncommon people” (pg 107).
“One needs to feel that one’s life has meaning, that one is needed in this world” (pg 118).
“It’s not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it” (pg 157).
“Shame hurts, but it is a useful wound, perhaps the most indispensable condition of a good life. our self-respected, our salvation, depends upon our sense of it” (pg 170).
Grade: A
Not perfect, and perhaps better when read alongside Humilitas and The Road to Character, but still a worthwhile, easy read.