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Courage
Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.  Courage is the price life exacts for granting peace. Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. The great soul is the person who has taken on the task of change. If he or she is able to transcend fear, to act out of courage, the whole of its group will benefit and each one, in his or her own life, will be suddenly more courageous, though they may not see how or why. It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. It lies in having no goal to reach. It is not a calamity to die with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace not to have any stars to reach. Not failure, but low aim, is the real sin. I have three treasures: The first is love; The second is never too much; The third is never try to be first in the world. Through love one has courage; In moderation one has strength; In never trying to be first One gives one's talents time to mature. Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. 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. The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it. I'm not afraid of storms for I'm learning how to sail my ship. Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will. The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one can't do. It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while. The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized — never knowing. What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, "Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams." Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they're still there. These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, "How good or how bad am I?" That's where courage comes in. Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift — there is nothing small about it. We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help you create the fact. The difference between great and average is, mostly, having the imagination and zeal to re-create yourself daily. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Willing to experience aloneness, I discover connection everywhere; Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within; Opening to my loss, I gain the embrace of the Universe; Surrendering into emptiness, I find fullness without end. Each condition I flee from pursues me, Each condition I welcome transforms me . . . It is not an easy or convenient life for which I search ... but a life lived to the edge of my possibility. It is not enough to have the courage of your convictions, you must also have the courage to have your convictions challenged. Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life. It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead. How glorious it is — and also how painful — to be an exception. The deepest human defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become. The Four-Fold Way Show up in all ways. Pay attention to what has heart and meaning. Tell the truth without judgment or blame. Be open to outcomes but not attached to outcomes. To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take a step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe one of two things will happen — there will be something solid for us to stand upon, or we will be taught to fly. It is better to make a mistake with the full force of your being than to carefully avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit. Responsibility means recognizing both pleasure and price, making a choice based on that recognition, and living with that choice without concern. All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom. Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervour. The relinquishing of the lesser is the gaining of the greater. Give up all and you gain all. The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. It is chaos the provides the growing spaces, the open spaces in which life evolves. The significant gift of chaos is to create the "differences that make a difference", through which we learn. Try looking at life as a beautifully well-organized dynamic. Trust the universe. Trusting means that the circumstance that you are in is working toward your best and most appropriate end. There is no when to that. There is no if to that. It is. Release your specifications and say to the Universe: Find me where you know I need to be. Let them go and trust that the Universe will provide, and so it shall. Let go of all. Let your higher self complete its task. Feel your intentions in your heart. You will not find God in your intellect. Divine intelligence is in the heart. You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best you have to give. To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine every moment of your life. Leap and the net will appear. The great virtue in life is real courage, that knows how to face facts and live beyond them. In avoiding all pain and seeking comfort at all costs we may be left without mercy and compassion. In rejecting change and risk, we often cheat ourselves of the quest. In denying suffering, we may never know our strength and our greatness. He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I have never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. Living with integrity means:
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