Adams John 1735-1826
Thoughts on Government
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
Allingham William 1828-1899
The Fairies
Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting,
For fear of little men.
Anouilh Jean 1910-1987
We poison our lives with fear of burglary and shipwreck, and, ask anyone, the house is never burgled, and the ship never goes down.
Armstrong Neil
Fear is not an unknown emotion to us.
Atwood Margaret
Fear has a smell, as
Love does.
Bacon Francis 1561-1626
Essays ‘Of Death'
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.
Bacon Francis 1561-1626
Essays „Of Death"
There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death. 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.
Bacon Francis 1561-1626
Essays "Of Great Place"
Severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate.
Berryman John 1914-1972
‚A Point of Age'
We must travel in the direction of our fear.
The Bible (Authorized Version)
New Testament: I John ch.4 v.18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.
Bonaparte Napoleon 1822-1891
There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.
The Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 23 v.4
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Brecht Bertholt 1898-1956
Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.
Burke Edmund 1729-1797
On Conciliation with America
The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
Burke Edmund 1729-1797
On the Sublime and Beautiful
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
Camus Albert 1913-1960
Nothing is more despicable than respect based of fear.
Connolly Cyril 1903-1974
Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it; a child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise.
Cowper William 1731-1800
'Truth'
He has no hope that never had a fear.
Downes Donald
Fear can be headier than whisky, once man has acquired a taste for it.
Dryden John 1631-1700
Aureng-Zebe
Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear,
To be we know not what, we know not where.
Eliot T.S. 1888-1965
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Farrell Warren
When women hold off from marrying men, we call it independence. When men hold off from marrying women, we call it fear of commitment.
Hobbes Thomas 1588-1679
Leviathan
No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger
of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Hoffer Eric 1902-1983
Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious
to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.
Johnson Samuel 1709-1784
Shame arises from the fear of man; conscience
from the fear of God.
Jonson Ben c.1573-1637
Sejanus
Tell proud Jove,
Between his power and thine there is no odds:
‘Twas only fear first in the world made gods.
Jonson Ben c.1573-1637
Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter
The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end.
Joyce James 1882-1941
Finnegans Wake
All Monday, tearsday, wailsday, thumpsday, frightday, shatterday till the fear of the Law.
Kennedy John F. 1917-1963
(Inaugural address)
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
La Fontaine Jean de 1621-1695
Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats; neither fear nor shame can cure them.
La Rochefoucauld François Duc de 1613-1680
Maxims
Love of justice in most men is no more than the fear of suffering injustice.
Landor Walter Savage 1775-1864
‘Death stands above me'
Death stands above me, whispering low
I know not what into my ear;
Of his strange language all know
Is, there is not a word of fear.
Lao-Tsu c.604-c.531 BC
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honour and praise. The next, the people fear, and the next the people hate. When the best leader's work is done, the people say, ‘we did it ourselves!'
Lawrence D.H. 1885-1930
‘Mountain Lion'
Men! The only animal in the world to fear!
Lawrence D.H. 1885-1930
Phoenix
The English ... are paralysed by fear. That is what thwarts and distorts the Anglo-Saxon existence ... Nothing could be more lovely and fearless than Chaucer. But already
Shakespeare is morbid with fear, fear of consequences. That is the strange phenomenon of the English Renaissance: this mystic terror of the consequences, the consequences of action.
Lee Laurie 1914-1997
The urge to write is also the fear of death - the need to leave messages saying ‘I was here, I saw it too.'
Leonardo Da Vinci 1852-1519
Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.
Lowry Malcolm 1909-1957
Fear ringed by doubt is my eternal moon.
Machiavelli Niccolo 1469-1527
Men hesitate less to injure a man who makes himself loved than to injure one who makes himself feared, for their love is held by a chain of obligation which,
because of men's wickedness, is broken on every occasion for the sake of selfish profit; but their fear is secured by a dread of punishment.
Mencken H.L. 1880-1956
Chrestomathy
Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
Milton John 1608-1674
Where no hope is left, is left no fear.
More Hannah 1745-1833
In grief we know the worst of what we feel,
But who can tell the end of what we fear?
Muir Edwin 1887-1959
Journeys and Places ‘Hölderlin's Journey'
And without fear the lawless roads
Ran wrong through all the land.
Newton John 1725-1807
‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds'
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
Nixon Richard 1913-1994
You know very well that whether you are on page one or page thirty depends on whether they fear you. It is just as simple as that.
O'neill Eugene 1888-1953
Man's loneliness is but his fear of life.
Pasqua Charles 1927-
Fear of the policeman is the beginning of wisdom.
Patton George S. 1885-1945
Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.
Ralegh Sir Walter 1552-1618
Line written on a window-pane
Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.
Roche Arthur Somers
Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.
Roosevelt Franklin D. 1882-1945
(inaugural address)
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Roosevelt Franklin D. 1882-1945
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want ... everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear ... anywhere in the world.
Russell Bertrand 1872-1970
Marriage and Morals
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear
life are already three parts dead.
Russell Bertrand 1872-1970
Men fear thought more than they fear anything else on earth - more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to priviledge, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless,
indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of ages.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Antony and Cleopatra
In time we hate that which we often fear.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Cymbeline
Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy wordly task hast done,
Home art gone and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Spenser Edmund c.1552-1599
The Faerie Queen
Still as he fled, his eye was backward cast,
As if his fear still followed him behind.
Stekel Wilhelm
Anxiety is fear of one's self.
Thomson James 1700-1748
‘Epitaph on Solomon Mendez'
Here lies a man who never lived,
Yet still from death was flying;
Who, if not sick, was never well;
And died - for fear of dying!
Twain Mark 1835-1910
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Tzu-Sun
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
Virgil 70-19 BC
Fear succeeds crime - it is its punishment.
Weeks Edward
To live with fear and not be afraid is the final test of maturity.
Wilbur Richard
‘Advice to a Prophet'
Spare us all word of the weapons, their force and range,
The long numbers that rocket the mind;
Our slow, unreckoning hearts will be left behind,
Unable to fear what is too strange.
Curie Marie 1867-1934
Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
Lear Edward 1812-1888
A Book of Nonsense
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, ‘It is just as I feared! -
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'
Machiavelli Niccolo 1469-1527
I t is much safer for a prince to be feared than loved, if
he is to fail in one of the two.