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"I reached into my pack and held something small in the fist I made. "It's a pocketknife, I said, enunciating each letter. I was asserting myself, I'd snapped out of something; he visibly snapped out of something too. I saw it acutely in his dropping posture: doubt in his movement. I said, "The truck works. And so it did."
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Exlpore more Courage quotes

"Never do what the devil provokes you to do."

"If you are determined to live life to the full, if you are determined to conquer in life, if you are determined to win in life, if you are determined to soar in life, you must not shy away from this particular demand. Life demands death."

"Don't think about sharks when you are walking on water."

"Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on."

"Stepping out and stepping up can be an intimidating experience, especially in social situations where the outcomes are unpredictable and uncertain. Have you ever been reluctant to . . . Say "no?" Request help? Ask for a raise? Stand up to a bully? Talk about tough topics? Confront a friend or spouse? Speak up and share your opinion? Begin a conversation with a stranger? Deliver a presentation or speak in public? Talk about the "white elephant in the room? Befriend people who are much different than you? Make sales calls because you don't want to be rejected? Approach a new group of people at a networking event? Go to an event by yourself where you did not know anyone?"

"Never be intimidated by what seems ominous, for BiG is only an accumulation of many smalls."

"I noticed that volcanoes, earthquakes and floods, though are not good events, they are better than the silence of good people when bad people take the podium. The latter are to an extent uncontrollable, but the former can be stopped."
Explore more quotes by Aspen Matis

"I was able to pitch a tent and carry a backpack twenty-five miles a day through mountains-I'd mastered a thousand amazing physical feats-physically I'd become undeniably confident and capable-but physical weakness had never been the problem that I had. My true problem had been passivity, the lifelong-conditioned submission that became my nature."

"I'd have to be impolite, an inconvenience, and sometimes awkward. But if I could commit, all that discomfort would add up to zap predatory threads like a Taser gun. I'd stun them. They'd bow to me. I'd let my no echo against the mountains.And better to feel bad for a moment saying no-and stop it-than to get harmed.I would take better care.That small word, no. I'd see its deity."

"A red leaf danced from a branch like a dropping flame, down into the calm blue lake. A gust had broken it free. There was a cold bite in the wind. It was now deep autumn in the mountains."

"I was promising myself strength.I had to write it, say it, make the effort and fake it before I actually believed I could do it."

"The wisdom of my body had cultivated vibrantly since those sadness-drunken months after the rape when I'd felt so numbed by the hurt and shame that I didn't move further. No longer. The way I felt about being sexually shamed had changed. Now I was angry that others were trying to shame my sexuality in the first place. I flushed-this time not in shame-but in rage."

"I wanted both things: strength in my independence and also this new desire. This felt like the beginning of a new kind of love."

"I needed to stop hiding: I was raped. It was time to honestly be exactly who I was. I saw-the shame wasn't mine, it was his, and I could stop misrepresenting myself, and I could accept myself."
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