Virtue index · Cardinal virtue
Fortitude (courage)
Courage: firmness of soul in facing danger and enduring hardship for the sake of what is good.
Definitions from the tradition
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics III.6-9: The courageous man faces and fears the right things, for the right motive, in the right way and at the right time; courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness, and is shown most of all in the face of a noble death.
Cicero, De Officiis I.61-66: Greatness and courage of spirit shows itself in disregard for outward circumstances and in doing deeds that are great and useful, but it must fight for justice, not for its own advantage.
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 123-124: Fortitude removes the obstacles that fear sets before the will; its chief act is to endure rather than to attack, and martyrdom is its perfect act.
Scripture, Joshua 1:9 (KJV): “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed”
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version as given in the library’s text. Other definitions are summarized, not quoted.
Opposing vices
- Cowardice: Fleeing from what ought to be faced.
- Rashness: Running into danger without reason or need.
Works that show fortitude (339)
Psalm 23Attributed to DavidIn verse 4 the speaker walks through the valley of the shadow of death and refuses to fear evil.c. 1000 BC (traditional); KJV 1611The IliadHomerHector goes out to face Achilles before the walls of Troy knowing he will likely die defending his city. Opposing vice: Cowardice.c. 8th century BCEPericles' Funeral OrationPericlesThe fallen chose to die resisting rather than live submitting, and Pericles calls on survivors never to decline the dangers of war.delivered 431 BC; recorded by Thucydides c. 431-400 BCThe Trojan Women and Other PlaysEuripidesPolyxena asks the Greek soldiers to release her arms so that she can meet the sacrificial stroke freely.415–c. 414 BCIphigenia in Aulis and Other PlaysEuripidesIphigenia overcomes her terror and goes willingly to the altar for the sake of Hellas.c. 430–405 BCThe Last Days of SocratesPlatoSocrates faces execution calmly, refusing to abandon philosophy or plead dishonorably. Opposing vice: Cowardice.c. 399–347 BCEMenoPlatoSocrates says he will fight in word and deed for the belief that we ought to search for what we do not know.c. 385 BCEThe Persian ExpeditionXenophonXenophon rallies the leaderless Ten Thousand and leads them home through hostile country.c. 370 BCEStatesmanPlatoThe closing section values the courageous nature as the city's power of action, provided it is woven together with gentleness.c. 360 BCThe RamayanaValmikiSita, held captive in the Asoka grove, refuses Ravan's wealth and endures his threats rather than betray Rama. Opposing vice: Cowardice.c. 5th century BC-3rd century AD (traditional)The ArgonauticaApollonius of RhodesJason yokes the fire-breathing bulls and faces the earthborn men in the field of Ares despite his fear. Opposing vice: Cowardice.3rd century BCThe Histories, Book VIPolybiusHoratius Cocles holds the Tiber bridge alone under many wounds until it is cut down behind him (ch. 55).c. 150 BCFirst Oration Against CatilineMarcus Tullius CiceroKnowing assassins had been sent to his house, Cicero confronts Catiline face to face in the senate and accepts the unpopularity his course may bring. Opposing vice: Cowardice.63 BCThe Conquest of GaulJulius CaesarCaesar records the standard-bearer of the Tenth Legion leaping into the surf at the British landing.58-50 BCEOn Duties (De Officiis)Marcus Tullius CiceroRegulus returns to captivity and death at Carthage rather than break his oath or advise what would harm Rome.44 BCCatiline's War and The Jugurthine WarSallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus)Cato stands against the momentum of the debate and persuades the senate that the safety of the state must come first.c. 42-40 BCThe History of Rome, Books I-VLivy (Titus Livius)Mucius holds his right hand in Porsena's altar fire in Book II to show that Romans can suffer as bravely as they act.c. 27-9 BCHeroidesOvidHypermnestra endures chains rather than kill her husband and refuses to say she repents.c. 25–16 BCThe AeneidVirgilAeneas endures storms, war, and the loss of Dido and his father to fulfill his duty to future Rome.c. 29–19 BCEThe Jewish WarFlavius JosephusJosephus describes the endurance of the defenders of Jerusalem and Masada.c. 75 CEThe Library (Bibliotheca)Apollodorus (attributed)Heracles endures twelve labours for Eurystheus, from the Nemean lion to Cerberus, to atone for his madness.1st–2nd century ADThe HistoriesTacitusTacitus opens by honouring mothers and wives who followed their families into exile and slaves who stayed loyal under torture in the worst of times.c. AD 100-110Discourses (selection) and EncheiridionEpictetusAgrippinus goes to exercise and then to dinner after the Senate condemns him, the model the opening discourse sets before students.c. 108 CEEarly Christian LivesAthanasius, Jerome and othersThe desert fathers and martyrs endure ascetic trial and persecution.c. 356–420 CEThe Roman HistoryAmmianus MarcellinusThe garrison of Amida, Ammianus among them, holds out for seventy-three days against Shapur's army before the walls are breached.c. 390 CEThe Consolation of PhilosophyBoethiusBoethius bears unjust condemnation by learning to look beyond fortune.c. 524 CEHistory of the Wars, Books I-II (The Persian War)Procopius of CaesareaTheodora counsels the court to remain in the palace during the Nika revolt rather than escape by sea.c. 550 CEThe Dream of the RoodAnonymousThe cross stands fast through nails, mockery, and blood because its Lord commands it, and Christ climbs the gallows boldly before many witnesses.c. 700-750 (Ruthwell Cross); Vercelli Book c. 975BeowulfAnonymousBeowulf faces Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and in old age the dragon.c. 8th-11th centuryThe Poetic EddaAnonymous (Old Norse)Hogni laughs as his heart is cut out at Atli's court, and Gunnar plays his harp in the snake-pit rather than yield the gold.c. 800–1100 (MS c. 1270)Deliverance from Error (The Confessions of al-Ghazali)Abu Hamid al-GhazaliHe gives up the most prestigious teaching post in Baghdad and his wealth, despite the criticism of every scholar in Iraq.c. 1100The Song of RolandAnonymousRoland and the rearguard hold the pass at Roncesvalles against overwhelming odds.c. 1100The AlexiadAnna KomneneAlexios escapes the rout at Dyrrachium, rebuilds his army, and fights on against the Normans and Pechenegs after repeated defeats.c. 1148Memoirs of Usama ibn MunqidhUsama ibn MunqidhUsama fought lions and armed men throughout his youth, trusting that no danger could shorten the life God had appointed.c. 1183Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of ConstantinopleGeoffrey de VillehardouinVillehardouin rallies the fugitives and commands the rearguard in the night retreat from Adrianople in 1205, leaving none of the wounded behind.c. 1207-1213The Prose EddaSnorri SturlusonTyr alone dares to lay his hand in the Fenris-Wolf's mouth as a pledge, and loses it so that the wolf can be bound.c. 1220The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga)Anonymous (Old Norse)Hogni laughs while his heart is cut out at Atli's command, and Gunnar plays his harp in the worm-close rather than reveal the gold.13th centuryThe Travels of Marco PoloMarco Polo (with Rustichello da Pisa)The Polos cross the Pamirs and the desert of Lop and spend nearly two years at sea on the voyage to Persia, during which most of their company died.c. 1298–1300The MabinogionAnonymous (Middle Welsh)Rhiannon bears seven years of penance at the horse-block for a crime she did not commit until Teirnyon restores her son.11th-14th century (manuscripts c. 1350-1410)The Travels of Ibn BattutaIbn BattutaIbn Battuta crosses deserts, mountains and seas for years after a holy man's charge in Alexandria, and does not abandon the purpose until he has met all three brothers.1355The Trial of Joan of ArcJeanne d'Arc; Pierre Cauchon; Guillaume Bouille; T. Douglas MurrayJoan answers her judges with steadiness through long interrogations.1431; rehabilitation 1450-1456; Murray translation 1902The Fall of Constantinople, 1453: Eyewitness AccountsNicolo Barbaro, George Sphrantzes, Doukas, and othersConstantine XI refused to abandon his city and died with its defenders in the final assault.1453Discourses on the First Decade of Titus LiviusNiccolò MachiavelliBrutus presides over the execution of his own sons to preserve Rome's newly won freedom in Book III, ch. III.c. 1517 (published 1531)The Leipzig DisputationMartin Luther, Johann Eck, and Andreas KarlstadtPressed by Eck before the duke and the university, Luther stated that some of Hus's condemned articles were Christian, knowing how dangerous the admission was.1519The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio)Martin LutherHe answers the most admired scholar in Europe at length in 1525, a year of war and danger, without withdrawing the position Erasmus attacked.1525Gargantua and PantagruelFrançois RabelaisFriar John alone defends the abbey vineyard against Picrochole's plunderers while the other monks sing in the choir.1532-1564On the Fabric of the Human Body (Preface)Andreas VesaliusIn the preface the young Vesalius publishes corrections of Galen while openly expecting opposition from older and more established physicians.1543Discourse on Voluntary ServitudeÉtienne de La BoétieThe Spartans Sperthies and Bulis go willingly to Persia to atone for their city and refuse Hydarnes' offer of royal favour rather than give up their liberty.c. 1548 (published 1576)The Popol Vuh (Lewis Spence's account)Anonymous (K'iche' Maya); Lewis SpenceThe twins pass through the Houses of Lances, Cold, Jaguars and Fire without yielding to the lords of death.c. 1554-1558; Spence 1908The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniBenvenuto CelliniWith a broken leg after his escape from Castel Sant'Angelo he crawls through Rome on hands and knees seeking refuge.1558-1563Institutes of the Christian ReligionJohn CalvinThe Prefatory Address defends persecuted French believers before their king, and the final section urges courage when rulers command what God forbids.1536; definitive Latin edition 1559The Life of St. Teresa of JesusTeresa of AvilaShe endures years of paralysis and the hostility of Avila over St. Joseph's without abandoning her purpose.1565Speech to the Troops at TilburyElizabeth IElizabeth comes unguarded among armed men and resolves to live and die with her army rather than shelter from the danger. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1588The Faerie Queene, Book IEdmund SpenserRedcrosse fights the dragon for three days, rising each morning after being struck down.1590Journey to the West (A Mission to Heaven)Wu Cheng'enThe pilgrims travel ten thousand li through eighty-one trials, and Kwanyin adds one more rather than let the count fall short. Opposing vice: Cowardice.c. 1592Richard IIIWilliam ShakespeareQueen Elizabeth answers Richard's long suit for her daughter in Act 4, Scene 4 by naming each of his murders to his face, and the daughter is later promised to Richmond.c. 1592-93 (published 1597)Romeo and JulietWilliam ShakespeareJuliet masters her terror of the vault in Act 4, Scene 3 and drinks the potion to stay faithful to her husband.c. 1595 (published 1597)Henry IV, Part 1William ShakespeareWounded at Shrewsbury, Hal refuses to withdraw and goes back into the fight to save his father from Douglas.c. 1596-97 (published 1598)As You Like ItWilliam ShakespeareDuke Senior and his lords endure winter exile in Arden without bitterness.c. 1599 (First Folio 1623)Henry VWilliam ShakespeareHenry leads a sick, outnumbered army into battle and refuses to wish for more men.1599Julius CaesarWilliam ShakespearePortia proves her constancy by a self-inflicted wound to be trusted with her husband's secret.1599The St Crispin's Day SpeechWilliam ShakespeareFacing a far larger French army, Henry refuses to wish for one man more and resolves to fight with those he has.1599New Astronomy and The Harmony of the WorldJohannes KeplerKepler persisted for years through dozens of failed calculations in what he called his war on Mars.1609-1619Sonnet 116William ShakespeareLove is pictured as an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.1609SonnetsWilliam ShakespeareSonnet 116 holds that true love bears it out even to the edge of doom rather than bending with circumstance.1609Holy Sonnet X: "Death, be not proud"John DonneThe speaker faces death not with dread but with a direct challenge, telling it to be not proud.written c. 1609-1610; published 1633On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (De Motu Cordis)William HarveyIn Chapter VIII he admits he fears making mankind his enemies and publishes anyway, declaring that the die is cast.1628AreopagiticaJohn MiltonHis warfaring Christian must go out to meet his adversary and run for the immortal garland, not without dust and heat.1644Lex, RexSamuel RutherfordThe preface accepts the name of traitor, as Christ and the apostles bore it, rather than abandon what Rutherford believed true.1644On His Blindness (Sonnet XIX)John MiltonPatience teaches the speaker to bear the mild yoke of blindness without murmuring, a steadiness under loss rather than a show of strength.written c. 1652-1655; published 1673The Lives of Richard Hooker, George Herbert and Robert SandersonIzaak WaltonHooker keeps writing The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity through poverty, controversy and a long final sickness.1665-1678Grace Abounding to the Chief of SinnersJohn BunyanHe tells Justice Keelin that he would preach again the day after his release, knowing it means continued imprisonment.1666Paradise LostJohn MiltonAbdiel rebukes Satan before the whole rebel host and returns alone to God, unmoved and unshaken.1667; revised 1674A Theologico-Political TreatiseBaruch SpinozaHe wrote in defence of freedom of thought shortly after his friend Koerbagh died in prison for his writings.1670The Pilgrim's ProgressJohn BunyanPilgrims endure Vanity Fair and Doubting Castle without quitting. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1678The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary RowlandsonMary RowlandsonRowlandson endures twenty removes on foot, wounded and hungry, while caring for her dying daughter and seeking her other children.1682The Practice of the Presence of GodBrother LawrenceNear eighty and often close to death, he prays for strength to suffer with courage rather than for relief.1692The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingHenry FieldingSophia defies her father's threats and an unwanted marriage by leaving home with only her maid.1749Letters from a Farmer in PennsylvaniaJohn DickinsonLetter XI calls for perpetual vigilance and Letter XII for firm opposition to the duties, even when submission would be easier.1767-1768The Journal of John WoolmanJohn WoolmanHe travels through a dangerous wilderness in wartime in 1763, resigned even to captivity, to visit the town on the Susquehanna.1774Give Me Liberty or Give Me DeathPatrick HenryHenry chooses death over living in chains and calls the convention to fight despite the colonies' apparent weakness. Opposing vice: Cowardice.delivered 1775; text published 1817Common Sense, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, and The American CrisisThomas PainePaine’s The American Crisis rallied the army in the winter of 1776.1776-1794The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Selections)Edward GibbonConstantine Palaeologus refuses to leave the breach and dies fighting with his nobles when the walls are carried (Chapter LXVIII).1776-1789The Newburgh AddressGeorge WashingtonHe asks the officers to show patient virtue rising superior to the pressure of the most complicated sufferings, and to keep enduring until Congress can pay them.1783Critique of Practical ReasonImmanuel KantKant's honest man in the Methodology keeps refusing to slander Anne Boleyn even when friends, kin and a prince threaten him with ruin and death.1788The Burke-Paine Debate on the French RevolutionEdmund Burke and Thomas PainePaine stood by Rights of Man after the royal proclamation against seditious writings, and was convicted of seditious libel in his absence rather than recant.1790-1791The Life of Samuel JohnsonJames BoswellAfter the 1783 stroke takes his speech, he tests his mind with Latin verse and calmly writes notes summoning his physicians.1791A Vindication of the Rights of WomanMary WollstonecraftChapters 2 and 3 reject cultivated weakness and call women to strength of body and mind for the duties of life.1792Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern AbbeyWilliam WordsworthHe meets the loss of his youthful raptures without mourning and counts what has followed as recompense.1798The Virginia and Kentucky ResolutionsJames Madison and Thomas JeffersonBoth legislatures protested a federal law in the face of prosecutions of critics under the Sedition Act, while pledging their attachment to the Union.1798-1799Household Stories (Grimm's Fairy Tales)Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmThe sister in The Six Swans keeps silence for six years, even under accusation, to free her brothers.1812–1857The Swiss Family RobinsonJohann David WyssFritz sails alone to the smoking rock to rescue a stranger on the strength of a single note.1812IvanhoeWalter ScottRebecca stands on the battlement ready to die rather than yield to Bois-Guilbert in Chapter XXIV.1819 (dated 1820)The Monroe DoctrineJames MonroeA young and lightly armed nation publicly warns the great monarchies of Europe not to extend their system into the Americas.1823The Last of the MohicansJames Fenimore CooperCora refuses Magua's offer of life as his wife and kneels calmly before his knife on the mountain ledge.1826Worcester v. GeorgiaSupreme Court of the United StatesWorcester and Butler chose imprisonment at hard labour rather than take Georgia's oath, keeping the case alive for the Court to decide.1832UlyssesAlfred, Lord TennysonThough made weak by time and fate, Ulysses remains strong in will and refuses to yield.written 1833; published 1842Oliver TwistCharles DickensNancy goes to London Bridge to warn Rose Maylie and Mr. Brownlow, knowing Sikes may kill her if he finds out.1838The Thousand and One Nights (Lane's translation, Volume I)Anonymous; translated by Edward William LaneShahrazád asks to be married to the King knowing that every bride before her has been killed at dawn.1838-1841Essays: First Series (Self-Reliance and Other Essays)Ralph Waldo EmersonSelf-Reliance calls the reader to speak his convictions in hard words even when the whole cry of voices is on the other side.1841Fairy Tales (Selection)Hans Christian AndersenThe one-legged tin soldier keeps his musket shouldered and never changes countenance through the flooded gutter, the rat and the fish's belly.1835–1872The Three MusketeersAlexandre DumasThe friends hold the ruined bastion Saint-Gervais for an hour against repeated Rochellais attacks.1844Narrative of the Life and What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?Frederick DouglassDouglass resists Covey and escapes to freedom.1845 / 1852The True Story of My LifeHans Christian AndersenHe endures years of humiliation as an overgrown pupil under the harsh rector at Slagelse and Helsingør.1846Jane EyreCharlotte BrontëJane leaves Thornfield at dawn with no money, rather than stay unlawfully with the man she loves.1847The Tenant of Wildfell HallAnne BrontëHelen plans and carries out her escape from Grassdale with her son after Huntingdon burns her paints and seizes her money. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1848Speeches on the Compromise of 1850Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel WebsterCalhoun, near death, came to the Senate to sit through the reading of his speech rather than leave his position unstated.1850The LawFrédéric BastiatHe published the pamphlet against the prevailing currents of the 1848 Assembly while seriously ill in the last months of his life.1850A Wonder-Book for Girls and BoysNathaniel HawthorneBellerophon waits patiently day after day at the Fountain of Pirene before he can bridle Pegasus and face the Chimæra.1851CranfordElizabeth GaskellCaptain Brown darts onto the line to save a strayed child and loses his life doing it.1851–53Moby-DickHerman MelvilleThe whalemen face lowerings, storms and the try-works fire with steady courage in dangerous work.1851Uncle Tom's CabinHarriet Beecher StoweEliza leaps across the floating ice of the Ohio with her son in her arms to save him from sale.1852 (serialized 1851-52)12 Years a SlaveSolomon NorthupNorthup endures twelve years of bondage without losing his identity or hope of freedom.1853Tanglewood TalesNathaniel HawthorneThe tiny Pygmy stands on Hercules's palm and declares that his soul is as big as the hero's own.1853VilletteCharlotte BrontëLucy crosses to a foreign country alone with fifteen pounds and keeps her post through the long vacation's despair.1853Hard TimesCharles DickensRachael searches for Stephen and endures the town's suspicion until his name is cleared.1854WaldenHenry David ThoreauHe goes to jail rather than pay a tax to a government that upholds slavery, and argues in the appended essay that a just man's place is in that prison.1854The Age of FableThomas BulfinchPsyche completes every one of Venus's impossible tasks, even the journey to Proserpine's realm, to win Cupid back.1855The Song of HiawathaHenry Wadsworth LongfellowIn the famine he goes alone into the frozen forest to seek food for the dying Minnehaha.1855The Heroes; or, Greek Fairy Tales for My ChildrenCharles KingsleyPerseus accepts a seven years' journey from which he cannot turn back, saying it is better to die than to live useless and despised.1856Dred Scott v. SandfordSupreme Court of the United StatesDred and Harriet Scott pressed their claims for eleven years through state trial and appeal and a second suit in the federal courts.1857Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many LandsMary SeacoleAfter being refused by every London office, Seacole travels to the Crimea at her own cost and works under fire on 18 June 1855.1857House Divided SpeechAbraham LincolnHe kept the house-divided passage against his friends' advice, knowing it could cost him the Senate seat. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1858Novum Organon RenovatumWilliam WhewellWhewell praises Kepler for trying and rejecting hypothesis after hypothesis about Mars until the ellipse fitted the facts.1858The Lincoln-Douglas DebatesAbraham Lincoln and Stephen A. DouglasDouglas campaigned against the leadership of his own party after opposing the Lecompton Constitution, and told the Freeport crowd he would fight whoever fought the principle of self-government.1858A Tale of Two CitiesCharles DickensMiss Pross stands her ground against an armed Madame Defarge to protect Lucie's escape.1859Paul Revere's RideHenry Wadsworth LongfellowRevere rows past a British man-of-war and rides through the night knowing that capture could follow.written 1860; published 1861The Huxley-Wilberforce DebateThomas Henry Huxley and Samuel WilberforceHuxley, a young lecturer, rose to answer the bishop of the diocese before a crowded Oxford audience in defence of a theory then under heavy criticism.1860The Woman in WhiteWilkie CollinsMarian lies on the verandah roof in a storm to overhear Fosco and Sir Percival, at the cost of a dangerous fever.1859–60Incidents in the Life of a Slave GirlHarriet A. JacobsLinda endures nearly seven years in a garret too low to stand in, through frostbite and illness, to remain near her children.1861Les MisérablesVictor HugoValjean carries the unconscious Marius for hours through the sewers of Paris.1862Legends of CharlemagneThomas BulfinchOrlando fights on at Roncesvalles until all his strength is spent and dies having made his confession to Turpin.1863The Gettysburg AddressAbraham LincolnRather than mourning alone, Lincoln asks the living to take up the unfinished work and the great task remaining before them. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1863Apologia Pro Vita SuaJohn Henry NewmanHe resigns St. Mary's and leaves Oxford, his friends and his career for the sake of conscience.1864Alice's Adventures in WonderlandLewis CarrollAt the trial in Chapter XII Alice refuses to hold her tongue when the Queen orders her beheaded, and calls the court a pack of cards.1865An Introduction to the Study of Experimental MedicineClaude BernardHe continues to defend and practise vivisection while acknowledging the strong feelings of those who oppose it.1865Hans Brinker, or the Silver SkatesMary Mapes DodgeDame Brinker nurses her injured husband for ten years and keeps the family alive by spinning, knitting and gardening.1865O Captain! My Captain!Walt WhitmanIn the last stanza he faces the plain fact of death and walks the deck with mournful tread rather than fleeing it.1865Ex parte MilliganSupreme Court of the United StatesDavis, a close friend of the late President, wrote that the administration's commission in Indiana had acted without lawful authority.1866Experiments in Plant Hybridisation (in Bateson's Mendel's Principles of Heredity)Gregor Mendel; William BatesonMendel writes that it requires courage to undertake a labour of such extent, and he carried it through without recognition.1866No TreasonLysander SpoonerHe published the pamphlets himself, against the settled opinion of the victorious North in which he lived, after decades of equally unpopular antislavery writing.1867-1870War and PeaceLeo TolstoyPierre endures the forced march with the French prisoners, barefoot and hungry, and finds an inner freedom his captors cannot touch.1865-1869The Subjection of WomenJohn Stuart MillMill openly acknowledges he is arguing against a deep-rooted feeling and an almost universal opinion, and presses the case anyway.1869Veazie Bank v. FennoSupreme Court of the United StatesNelson, the Court's senior member, defends the reserved powers of the states against a strong current of wartime national legislation.1869Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaJules VerneWhen the ice closes around the Nautilus, the crew digs in shifts through the walls of ice while the air grows foul.1869-1870 (French); English 1872-73Legal Tender CasesSupreme Court of the United StatesChase and his colleagues hold to their earlier judgment in dissent even after losing the majority.1871Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found ThereLewis CarrollAlice keeps crossing brook after brook toward the Eighth Square despite rude flowers, bossy queens and a quarrelsome egg.1871 (dated 1872)CarmillaJ. Sheridan Le FanuGeneral Spielsdorf, broken by the loss of his ward, nevertheless returns to Karnstein to find and confront the creature that killed her.1872The Princess and the GoblinGeorge MacDonaldCurdie faces goblins and unjust blame. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1872Around the World in Eighty DaysJules VerneFogg meets delays without panic or abandoned duty. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1873Far from the Madding CrowdThomas HardyGabriel accepts the loss of his whole flock without self-pity and goes out to seek work as a labourer.1874The Wise Woman (A Double Story)George MacDonaldTrusting the wise woman's promise, Rosamond runs straight through the pack of wolves and hyenas to reach the cottage.1875I Will Fight No More ForeverChief JosephJoseph endured a retreat of more than a thousand miles and then bore the harder duty of choosing to surrender.1877Life on the MississippiMark TwainTwain sits six days and nights beside his dying brother among the burned men in Memphis.1883The Merry Adventures of Robin HoodHoward PyleRobin meets peril with skill and cheerful grit. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1883The Princess and CurdieGeorge MacDonaldHe holds his hands in the burning roses until the pain passes, trusting her word.1883 (serialized 1882)Personal MemoirsUlysses S. GrantGrant wrote his memoirs while dying of throat cancer to provide for his family.1885-1886KidnappedRobert Louis StevensonDavid endures kidnapping, shipwreck, starvation on Earraid and a long flight while sick without abandoning Alan.1886The Black ArrowRobert Louis StevensonDick holds the barricade in the Battle of Shoreby against the Lancastrian cavalry until the street is cleared.1888 (serialized 1883)The Blue Fairy BookAndrew LangHeroes endure tasks, forests, and years of waiting. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1889The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan DoyleViolet Hunter stays at the Copper Beeches despite her fear, explores the locked wing, and helps Holmes rescue Alice Rucastle.1892 (stories 1891-92)The Jungle BookRudyard KiplingRikki-tikki goes alone into the dark bathroom and holds on to Nag's head until the cobra is killed.1894The Red Badge of CourageStephen CraneOn the second day Henry takes up the colors from the dying color sergeant and carries them forward through the charge and the retreat.1895Plessy v. FergusonSupreme Court of the United StatesHomer Plessy and the Comité des Citoyens deliberately accepted arrest and years of litigation to bring the Separate Car Act before the courts.1896Captains CourageousRudyard KiplingThe crew works on through fog, bergs, gales and the loss of nearby schooners.1897Cyrano de BergeracEdmond RostandHe crosses the Spanish lines at Arras every day to carry Roxane's letters, and dies on his feet, sword in hand.1897 (French)The Arabian Nights EntertainmentsAndrew Lang (ed.)Scheherazade insists on becoming the Sultan's bride, knowing she may be strangled at dawn, to end his killing of the kingdom's daughters.1898The Story of a SoulTherese of LisieuxAt the papal audience she speaks to Leo XIII despite being told to keep silent, and she later bears tuberculosis with patience.1898The War of the WorldsH. G. WellsThe narrator keeps watching, reasoning and moving on through the fortnight in the ruined house at Sheen and the walk through dead London.1898United States v. Wong Kim ArkSupreme Court of the United StatesWong Kim Ark pursued his claim through two federal courts over more than two years rather than accept his exclusion from the only country he had lived in.1898The Wonderful Wizard of OzL. Frank BaumThe Cowardly Lion, trembling, holds off the Kalidahs at the edge of the ravine so his friends can cross. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1900Up from SlaveryBooker T. WashingtonAfter three brick kilns fail at Tuskegee he pawns his watch to try again, and the fourth succeeds.1901 (serialized 1900-01)Cuchulain of MuirthemneLady GregoryCuchulain holds the fords alone against the armies of Ireland while the other men of Ulster lie under Macha's curse. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1902Five Children and ItE. NesbitDuring the siege Robert locks the enemy soldier Jakin in the turret, knocks another climber back into the moat, and refuses to surrender.1902The Hound of the BaskervillesArthur Conan DoyleWatson goes out alone at night to follow Barrymore's light and to confront the man in the stone hut with his revolver ready.1902 (serialized 1901-02)The Call of the WildJack LondonBuck endures the club, the cold and the starvation trail of Chapter V and is beaten without being broken.1903The Souls of Black FolkW. E. B. Du BoisAlexander Crummell, in Chapter XII, perseveres through rejection by a seminary and years of poverty without yielding to hate, despair or doubt.1903The Story of King Arthur and His KnightsHoward PyleArthur faces a year under sentence of death to answer the enchanter's riddle and returns to keep his covenant.1903The Story of My LifeHelen KellerHelen keeps studying for the Radcliffe examinations even when her algebra and geometry books are not in braille.1903Christ LegendsSelma LagerlöfRaniero guards his candle flame through wind, robbers and ridicule all the way from Jerusalem to Florence.1904A Little PrincessFrances Hodgson BurnettSent to the attic, Sara tells herself that soldiers do not complain and bears cold, hunger and scolding in silence.1905The Scarlet PimpernelBaroness OrczyPercy walks into Chauvelin's trap at Calais to bring out Armand and the Comte de Tournay, and takes a beating in his carter's disguise without giving himself away.1905The Railway ChildrenE. NesbitBobbie keeps the secret of Father's imprisonment from her brother and sister and shares Mother's grief bravely.1906White FangJack LondonWhite Fang survives famine, Lip-lip's pack, Beauty Smith's pen and Cherokee's grip, and fights on against Jim Hall despite three bullet wounds.1906OrthodoxyG. K. ChestertonChapter VI describes Christian courage as a strong desire for life taking the form of readiness to die.1908Citizenship in a Republic ("The Man in the Arena")Theodore RooseveltRoosevelt honors the man in the arena who strives valiantly and, if he fails, fails while daring greatly. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1910If—Rudyard KiplingThe son must hold on by the Will alone after heart, nerve, and sinew are gone, and rebuild broken work with worn-out tools. Opposing vice: Cowardice, Despair.written c. 1895; published 1910The Phantom of the OperaGaston LerouxChristine turns the scorpion, agreeing to marry Erik, to save the people in the Opera above from the gunpowder.1910LepantoG. K. ChestertonDon John, tiny and unafraid in an enormous silence, rides out when the great kings of Europe will not.1911Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy)J. M. BarrieCaptured on the Jolly Roger, Wendy refuses Hook's offer and walks toward the plank urging the boys to die like English gentlemen.1911 (as Peter and Wendy; play 1904)Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesHarlan, near the end of a long career, stands alone in insisting that the Court enforce the words Congress chose.1911Death in VeniceThomas MannChapter II honours Aschenbach's years of holding out through weakness to complete his works, the endurance the narrator likens to Saint Sebastian's.1912Early Poems: A Boy's Will, North of Boston, Mountain IntervalRobert FrostThe farm wife of A Servant to Servants keeps on with endless chores, repeating that the best way out is always through.1913–1916PollyannaEleanor H. PorterAfter the accident she bears months of pain and the fear of never walking, and writes joyfully of her first six steps.1913The Story of My Boyhood and YouthJohn MuirHe goes back down the Hickory Hill well and finishes cutting through the sandstone after nearly dying of choke-damp.1913Theodore Roosevelt: An AutobiographyTheodore RooseveltA sickly, asthmatic boy, he trains himself painfully in body and spirit and learns courage by acting as if he were unafraid.1913The Prussian Officer and Other StoriesD. H. LawrenceElizabeth Bates keeps her children calm and does the work of laying out her husband's body.1914In Flanders FieldsJohn McCraeThe dead ask the living to take the torch from their failing hands and hold it high in the face of the foe.1915The Thirty-Nine StepsJohn BuchanHannay sets the lentonite charge in the locked storeroom knowing it may kill him, because the alternative is certain death and failure.1915Relativity: The Special and General TheoryAlbert EinsteinIn Appendix III he names an observation, the red shift, that would make his theory untenable if it failed.1916Understood BetsyDorothy Canfield FisherBetsy stops crying at the Wolf Pit, drags a heavy pine branch to the edge and gets Molly out.1917 (serialized 1916)Schenck v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesSchenck and Baer accepted prosecution rather than abandon a campaign they believed was a lawful defense of constitutional rights.1919Bliss and Other StoriesKatherine MansfieldRobert Salesby in The Man without a Temperament endures months of tending his invalid wife abroad without complaint, hiding his longing for home.1920The Second ComingW. B. YeatsBy naming the condition in which the best lack all conviction, the poem shows what is lost when courage and resolve fail among good people. Opposing vice: Cowardice.written 1919; published 1920The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before AchillesPadraic ColumJason yokes the fire-breathing bulls and faces the earth-born warriors in the field of Aeetes.1921The Velveteen RabbitMargery WilliamsBecoming Real can hurt; the rabbit endures wear, fever-time parting, and the threat of the fire. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1922Saint JoanGeorge Bernard ShawJoan tears up her recantation and chooses the stake rather than perpetual imprisonment.1923The Murder on the LinksAgatha ChristieDulcie Duveen climbs a tree into the villa at night and wrestles the murderer to save Mrs. Renauld's life.1923Mrs. DallowayVirginia WoolfClarissa, recovering from illness and feeling her age, carries through the party and returns to her guests after the news of the young man's death.1925The TrialFranz KafkaAt his first hearing K. stands before the crowded court and openly denounces its proceedings, refusing to be cowed.1914-1915 (published 1925)Buck v. BellSupreme Court of the United StatesCarrie Buck lived for more than five decades after the operation, working and twice marrying, while bearing a loss no later apology could restore.1927Journey of the MagiT. S. EliotThe Magi press on through the very dead of winter despite deserting camel men and voices calling it folly.1927To the LighthouseVirginia WoolfMrs McNab, old and aching, labours to save the decaying house in Time Passes so the family can return.1927The House at Pooh CornerA. A. MilneAfraid of heights, Piglet is pulled up to Owl's letter-box and squeezes out to fetch help for his trapped friends. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1928A Farewell to ArmsErnest HemingwayCatherine faces a long and dangerous labour in Lausanne with jokes and courage, telling Frederic she is not afraid.1929All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria RemarqueThe men endure days of bombardment, gas and hunger and still go back into the line.1929 (German, Im Westen nichts Neues, serialized 1928)Mourning Becomes ElectraEugene O'NeillIn the last act Lavinia chooses a lifetime alone in the house rather than the easier escapes of marriage or death.1931Little House in the Big WoodsLaura Ingalls WilderMa stays calm when she finds a bear at the barnyard gate in the dark and carries Laura safely back to the house.1932First Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear")Franklin D. RooseveltRoosevelt calls a frightened nation to face its conditions honestly and refuses to let nameless terror paralyze the effort at recovery. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1933Testament of YouthVera BrittainBrittain serves as a nurse through the Great War while losing her fiance, brother, and friends.1933The Logic of Scientific DiscoveryKarl PopperHe asks scientists to propose bold theories that risk refutation rather than safe ones that say little.1934 (English 1959)Little House on the PrairieLaura Ingalls WilderMa stays calm when strangers come into her kitchen, when the chimney catches fire, and through nights of war cries.1935The HobbitJ. R. R. TolkienBilbo goes on alone down the dark tunnel toward Smaug in Chapter 12 after his fear has stopped him.1937West Coast Hotel Co. v. ParrishSupreme Court of the United StatesSutherland holds to the reading he thought correct in the middle of a national crisis and a public campaign against the Court.1937The Sword in the StoneT. H. WhiteAs a merlin in the mews, the Wart keeps the hawks' night ordeal beside the dangerous goshawk Cully.1938Farewell to Baseball ("The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth")Lou GehrigWeeks after learning his illness was fatal, he stood before more than 61,000 people and spoke without self-pity.1939Lassie Come-HomeEric KnightLassie keeps walking south from the Highlands through hunger, storms, a cold river and lameness until she reaches the school gate.1940Minersville School District v. GobitisSupreme Court of the United StatesTwo children accepted expulsion from school rather than perform a gesture their parents taught them was forbidden by God.1940The Power and the GloryGraham GreeneThe whisky priest returns to minister to a dying man knowing it is a trap.1940Their Finest HourWinston ChurchillWith France fallen and invasion expected, Churchill calls the nation to brace itself to fight on alone rather than seek terms. Opposing vice: Cowardice, Despair.1940We Shall Fight on the BeachesWinston ChurchillChurchill vows to fight on every ground and never surrender after the loss of nearly all the army's equipment. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1940Mother Courage and Her ChildrenBertolt BrechtKattrin keeps drumming on the roof though the soldiers threaten and then shoot her.1941Pearl Harbor Address ("A Date Which Will Live in Infamy")Franklin D. RooseveltRoosevelt admits grave danger and very many lives lost, then pledges to see the war through no matter how long it may take.1941The MoffatsEleanor EstesThrough Rufus's scarlet fever and the quarantine, the older children keep the house running while Mama nurses him.1941Adam of the RoadElizabeth Janet GrayAdam keeps searching for Nick and Roger through injury, winter and false leads after being left alone at Guildford.1942The Boxcar ChildrenGertrude Chandler WarnerThe children walk by night and sleep in a haystack rather than let Benny be sent away to a children's home.1924; revised 1942The Little HouseVirginia Lee BurtonThe Little House stays standing through decades of digging, traffic and trains because she was built strong and well.1942The Screwtape LettersC. S. LewisThe patient does his duty through the air raids despite fear, which Screwtape admits is a defeat for Wormwood.1942Homer PriceRobert McCloskeyHomer walks into the robbers' cabin alone, sets Aroma on their money case and keeps four armed men in place until the sheriff comes.1943Johnny TremainEsther ForbesJohnny rides and spies through occupied Boston and crosses to Lexington to find Rab despite the danger.1943West Virginia State Board of Education v. BarnetteSupreme Court of the United StatesWitness families endured expulsion of their children and threats of prosecution rather than perform a ritual they believed was forbidden.1943Korematsu v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesFred Korematsu stood by his challenge through conviction and detention in 1942 and again through four decades until his conviction was vacated.1944Letters and Papers from PrisonDietrich BonhoefferBonhoeffer writes from prison with steadiness and faith before his execution.1943-1945 (published 1951)No Exit and Three Other PlaysJean-Paul SartreOrestes faces Zeus and the Furies after the killing in The Flies and refuses to disown his deed.1944-1948Order of the Day, 6 June 1944Dwight D. EisenhowerThe order prepares men for a landing against an enemy it frankly describes as well trained and savage.1944The Hundred DressesEleanor EstesMaddie resolves after the empty house on Boggins Heights that she will speak up the next time anyone is picked on, even at the risk of being teased herself.1944The Road to SerfdomF. A. HayekHayek published against the prevailing wartime opinion of his academic colleagues, expecting and receiving strong opposition.1944Animal FarmGeorge OrwellBoxer and Snowball stand and fight at the Battle of the Cowshed when Jones's men attack with guns and sticks.1945Stuart LittleE. B. WhiteStuart keeps the Wasp on course through squalls and a floating paper bag to win the race on the Central Park pond.1945That Hideous StrengthC. S. LewisMark refuses Frost's order to trample the crucifix in the Objective Room although he believes he is in the Institute's power and may be killed.1945The Open Society and Its EnemiesKarl PopperChapter 10 argues that free people must bear the strain of personal responsibility rather than seek refuge in a closed society.1945Man's Search for MeaningViktor E. FranklFrankl endures hunger, typhus and the loss of his family while continuing to serve as a doctor and reconstruct his lost manuscript.1946 (German, as Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager); English trans. Ilse Lasch 1959; enlarged 1962The PearlJohn SteinbeckKino refuses to be cheated by the pearl buyers and faces the trackers in the mountains to protect his wife and son.1947The PlagueAlbert CamusRieux works through months of exhausting rounds, lancing buboes and ordering isolations, without the support of hope in a cure.1947My Father's DragonRuth Stiles GannettElmer keeps sawing through the dragon's thick rope while the whole mob of animals crosses the crocodile bridge toward him.1948ShaneJack SchaeferShane rides alone to Grafton's to face Stark Wilson and Luke Fletcher so that Joe will not be killed.1949The Door in the WallMarguerite de AngeliRobin, on crutches, swims a cold river and crosses enemy lines to bring help to the besieged castle.1949Amos Fortune, Free ManElizabeth YatesAmos endures capture, the Middle Passage and decades of bondage without losing his patience or his will to be free.1950Little BritchesRalph MoodyWhen Father dies of pneumonia, eleven-year-old Ralph takes up the duties of the man of the family.1950Sweatt v. PainterSupreme Court of the United StatesSweatt pressed his claim through four years of hearings and appeals rather than accept the separate school.1950The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeC. S. LewisPeter, though frightened, attacks Maugrim to save Susan and wins his knighthood.1950The Origins of TotalitarianismHannah ArendtArendt insists in her preface on facing reality without resorting to comforting precedents, and writes of the camps without looking away.1951The Bears on Hemlock MountainAlice DalglieshJonathan climbs Hemlock Mountain alone in spite of his doubts and, when the bears come, keeps still under the pot instead of running.1952The BorrowersMary NortonArrietty overcomes her fear of the huge Boy and speaks to him on the bank, though borrowers are taught that being seen is the worst danger.1952The Old Man and the SeaErnest HemingwaySantiago endures days at sea fighting the marlin and the sharks.1952The Trojan WarOlivia CoolidgeHector goes out to face Achilles before the walls of Troy, knowing the danger, to defend his city and family.1952The Voyage of the Dawn TreaderC. S. LewisReepicheep faces the sea serpent, the Dark Island and the edge of the world without fear, and paddles alone over the great wave.1952Fahrenheit 451Ray BradburyMontag reads Dover Beach aloud to Mildred's friends, refuses to surrender Faber to Beatty, and flees the Hound on a numbed leg.1953The Silver ChairC. S. LewisPuddleglum stamps out the Queen's enchanted fire with his bare foot and stands up to her though he is afraid and in pain.1953Brown v. Board of Education of TopekaSupreme Court of the United StatesFamilies in Topeka, Clarendon County, Prince Edward County and Delaware brought suits that exposed them to economic and social pressure in their communities.1954Lord of the FliesWilliam GoldingSimon climbs the mountain alone to face the beast, finds it is a dead airman, and goes down in the dark to tell the others.1954The Courage of Sarah NobleAlice DalglieshSarah stays with Tall John's family through the autumn, and through the night of fear, while her father goes back for the others.1954The Eagle of the NinthRosemary SutcliffLame from his chariot wound, Marcus endures a second painful operation and later the long flight south with the stolen eagle.1954The Horse and His BoyC. S. LewisShasta jumps off Bree and runs back unarmed toward the lion that is attacking Aravis.1954The Lord of the RingsJ. R. R. TolkienSam carries Frodo up the slopes of Mount Doom when his master can no longer walk.1954-1955Twelve Angry MenReginald RoseOne juror stands alone against eleven.1954 (teleplay)Carry On, Mr. BowditchJean Lee LathamBound to the chandlery for nine years and barred from Harvard, Nat refuses to be becalmed and studies his way to mastery.1955Old YellerFred GipsonTravis shoots Old Yeller himself after the wolf bites him, bearing the hardest duty of the summer to protect his family.1956The FallAlbert CamusClamence's failure to turn back on the Pont Royal when he hears the woman's cries shows the courage that the moment demanded.1956The Last BattleC. S. LewisTirian, Jewel, Poggin and the children fight on at Stable Hill against Calormenes and Dwarfs when they know they cannot win.1956Till We Have FacesC. S. LewisOrual fights Argan of Phars in single combat to secure her kingdom and Trunia's cause.1956Through Gates of SplendorElisabeth ElliotThe five men land at Palm Beach knowing the Waorani have killed outsiders, resolved not to fire on them.1957Personal KnowledgeMichael PolanyiThe chapter on commitment asks the knower to state his findings and accept responsibility for them despite the risk of error.1958The Witch of Blackbird PondElizabeth George SpeareKit runs through the dark to warn Hannah Tupper and helps her escape the mob, knowing it may bring suspicion on herself.1958My Side of the MountainJean Craighead GeorgeSam stays on the mountain through deep snow and loneliness rather than giving up and going home.1959Bedtime for FrancesRussell HobanWhen the last thumping noise comes, Frances goes to see what it is for herself and finds the moth instead of running to her parents.1960Island of the Blue DolphinsScott O'DellKarana builds her house, makes her weapons and faces the wild dogs alone after Ramo's death, keeping on through years of solitude.1960To Kill a MockingbirdHarper LeeMrs. Dubose breaks herself of morphine in her last months so as to die free of it, which Atticus calls real courage.1960Inaugural AddressJohn F. KennedyHe calls the nation to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, against tyranny, poverty, disease, and war. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1961Mapp v. OhioSupreme Court of the United StatesDollree Mapp, after calling her lawyer, held to her demand for a search warrant while officers waited outside her door for hours.1961The Bronze BowElizabeth George SpeareSamson holds off the soldiers and breaks Joel's chains in the ambush, giving his life so that Joel can escape.1961The Phantom TollboothNorton JusterMilo leads his friends through the Mountains of Ignorance and up to the Castle in the Air though every demon there tries to stop him.1961Where the Red Fern GrowsWilson RawlsBilly chops at the giant sycamore for days with blistered hands rather than break his promise to his dogs.1961A Wrinkle in TimeMadeleine L'EngleMeg goes back before IT's pulsing brain knowing that her father and Calvin could not save her brother.1962Engel v. VitaleSupreme Court of the United StatesStewart dissented alone, setting out his reading of the nation's traditions against six colleagues.1962One Day in the Life of Ivan DenisovichAleksandr SolzhenitsynShukhov goes out to work in deep frost while feverish after the infirmary turns him away.1962 (Russian; English trans. 1963)Gideon v. WainwrightSupreme Court of the United StatesGideon pressed his claim from a prison cell in his own handwriting, against a precedent that seemed to settle the question against him.1963I Have a DreamMartin Luther King Jr.He honors the veterans of suffering and jail and sends the marchers back to Mississippi and Alabama to continue the struggle. Opposing vice: Cowardice.1963Across Five AprilsIrene HuntJethro takes on the ploughing and the farm after his father's heart attack and keeps working through threats, the burned barn and Tom's death.1964New York Times Co. v. SullivanSupreme Court of the United StatesThe four Alabama ministers faced a half-million-dollar judgment for an advertisement they had not authorized, and carried their appeal to the highest court.1964The Fall of Constantinople, 1453Steven RuncimanConstantine XI and his small force hold the walls for nearly two months against a vastly larger army and fight on to the last assault.1965Sam the MinutemanNathaniel BenchleySam goes with his father to Lexington green and stays through the British attack although he is badly frightened.1969Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School DistrictSupreme Court of the United StatesMary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt wore their armbands knowing that the principals had announced suspension as the penalty.1969The Trumpet of the SwanE. B. WhiteBorn without a voice, Louis learns to write on a slate and then masters the trumpet rather than accept a silent life.1970The Hiding PlaceCorrie ten BoomCorrie keeps faith through months of solitary confinement at Scheveningen and the cold, hunger and roll calls of Ravensbrück.1971Watership DownRichard AdamsBigwig holds the narrow run against Woundwort himself during the siege of the Honeycomb.1972The Gulag ArchipelagoAleksandr SolzhenitsynSolzhenitsyn wrote and hid the manuscript for a decade at great personal risk and published it knowing he would be punished.1973Against MethodPaul FeyerabendFeyerabend defended unpopular positions in the face of hostile reviews, answering critics at length in Science in a Free Society.1975O'Connor v. DonaldsonSupreme Court of the United StatesDonaldson pressed his claims for release for nearly fifteen years through repeated refusals and failed petitions.1975Mouse SoupArnold LobelThe mouse stays calm enough in the cooking pot to tell four complete stories before making his move.1977The Methodology of Scientific Research ProgrammesImre LakatosHis account defends the persistence of scientists like the Newtonians who kept developing their programme through long periods of unsolved anomalies.1978Aaron v. SECSupreme Court of the United StatesThe case faults a supervisor who, warned twice of false sales talk, lacked the resolve to stop the salesmen in his charge.1980Dirks v. SECSupreme Court of the United StatesSecrist and Dirks pressed allegations of a massive fraud that management denied and a major newspaper at first declined to print.1983The Sign of the BeaverElizabeth George SpeareMatt stays at the cabin through autumn and the first snows with no word from his family, living on what Attean taught him.1983Keep the Lights Burning, AbbiePeter and Connie RoopAbbie climbs the icy towers night after night through a storm that lasts for weeks and does not let a single lamp go out.1985Sarah, Plain and TallPatricia MacLachlanSarah leaves her brother and the sea she loves to travel alone to a strange prairie farm and try a new life.1985Address to the Nation on the Challenger DisasterRonald ReaganReagan honors a crew who knew the dangers and overcame them, and tells children that the future belongs to the brave.1986Tear Down This Wall (Brandenburg Gate Address)Ronald ReaganReagan delivered the direct challenge to Gorbachev at the wall itself, against the advice of officials who wanted it removed.1987Number the StarsLois LowryAnnemarie runs alone through the woods at dawn with the packet and keeps her head when soldiers and their dogs stop her.1989Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of HealthSupreme Court of the United StatesLester and Joyce Cruzan pursued their daughter's case through years of litigation and public attention after her accident.1990Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. CaseySupreme Court of the United StatesPart III-C argues that the Court must hold to its commitments even when pressure to abandon them grows intense.1992Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the IliadRosemary SutcliffHector goes out to face Achilles before the walls, knowing he is likely to die, to defend his city and family.1993The GiverLois LowryJonas accepts the Giver's painful memories, the sunburn, the broken leg and the battlefield, so that he can carry what the Community refused to bear.1993John AdamsDavid McCulloughHe crosses the Atlantic in wartime with his young son and endures a grave illness in Amsterdam to win Dutch support.2001Zelman v. Simmons-HarrisSupreme Court of the United StatesSouter holds that constitutional limits must be kept especially in hard cases where a sympathetic purpose invites impatience with them.2002The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the BarbariansPeter HeatherAetius held the western provinces together for two decades against Attila and other threats, culminating in the defense of Gaul in 451.2005When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest DynastyHugh KennedyChapter 8 recounts the scholars who refused to affirm the caliph's doctrine during the mihna despite imprisonment and flogging.2005Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval EmpireJudith HerrinThe chapter on the siege of 1453 shows the defenders of Constantinople holding the walls for weeks against a far larger Ottoman army.2007The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live InHugh KennedyBerber leaders such as al-Kahina held out against the Arab armies in North Africa for years.2007Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic EyesTamim AnsaryThe narrative of recovery after the Mongol destruction of Baghdad shows Muslim societies rebuilding learning and states in three new empires.2009Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, SpyEric MetaxasBonhoeffer leaves the safety of New York in July 1939 to return to Germany and share the dangers facing the Confessing Church.2010Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and RedemptionLaura HillenbrandLouie endures forty-seven days on a raft and more than two years of cruelty from the Bird without breaking.2010Washington: A LifeRon ChernowHe holds the Continental Army together through the retreats of 1776 and the winter at Valley Forge.2010National Federation of Independent Business v. SebeliusSupreme Court of the United StatesThe joint dissenters insist on structural limits to federal power even in a case of great public consequence.2012Rome: An Empire's StoryGreg WoolfThe empire endures the severe crises of the third century and is reorganized rather than destroyed.2012Obergefell v. HodgesSupreme Court of the United StatesJames Obergefell pursued his case through every level of the courts to be recorded as John Arthur's surviving spouse, and four Justices each set out their dissenting reasons at length.2015The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an EmpireKyle HarperHarper shows the empire reorganizing and recovering under Diocletian and Constantine after the plague, drought and war of the third century.2017Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health OrganizationSupreme Court of the United StatesBoth the majority and the dissenters state their conclusions plainly on a divisive question, each acknowledging the deep convictions of those who will disagree.2022The New Roman Empire: A History of ByzantiumAnthony KaldellisKaldellis narrates how the empire survived the seventh-century Persian and Arab onslaughts and rebuilt itself in Anatolia.2023
In Plutarch’s Lives
Theseus, Romulus, Themistocles, Quintus Fabius Maximus, Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, Aemilius Paulus, Pelopidas, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Philopoemen, Pyrrhus, Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Cimon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Phocion, Cleomenes III, Gaius Gracchus, Demosthenes, Mark Antony, Aratus of Sicyon
Quotations
Frequently cited
“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
“"Soldiers don't complain," she would say between her small, shut teeth, "I am not going to do it; I will pretend this is part of a war."”
Frequently cited
“If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.”
Frequently cited
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Frequently cited
“All right, then, I’ll _go_ to hell”
Frequently cited
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head”
Frequently cited
“he was an old man, and albeit his eyes were unclouded, yet he saw naught, having lost his sight through a wound in the head. He was of a great heart.”
“But who fights ever hoping for success? I fought for lost cause, and for fruitless quest!”
Frequently cited
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
“he stood as firmly upon his one leg as the others on their two”
Frequently cited
“the parting with my wife and poor children, hath often been to me in this place, as the pulling the flesh from the bones”
“if I were out of prison to-day, I would preach the Gospel again to-morrow, by the help of God.”
Frequently cited
“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all”
“we must be nearer starvation than this before we turn faithless to the father!”
“Not a leak can show itself anywhere either in its politics, honor, or public safety, that a million fingers are not ready to stop it, at any cost.”
“Never was there exhibited in the history of the world higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and heroic endurance, than by the whigs of Carolina during the revolution.”
Frequently cited
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”
“Kept close in the palace am I, bound with heavy chains; and the cause of my punishment is that I was faithful.”
“She is not faithful who regrets her faith.”
Frequently cited
“For while it is impossible for a man who has seen the light not also to die, for one who has been an emperor it is unendurable to be a fugitive.”
Frequently cited
“Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”
“Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The Torch: be yours to hold it high!”
“Yet I would have chosen this, rather than my lot as a slave”
“we were redeemed by Christ at the great price which our redemption cost him, in order that we might not yield a slavish obedience to the depraved wishes of men, far less do homage to their impiety.”
“Remain where thou art, proud Templar, or at thy choice advance!”
“I will not cast away the gift of God, while he affords me the means of defending it.”
“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you”
Frequently cited
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”
Frequently cited
“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour”
Frequently cited
“But only be good, dear, only be brave, only be kind and true always, and then you will never hurt any one, so long as you live, and you may help many, and the big world may be better because my little child was born.”
Frequently cited
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship”
“The city is well fortified which hath a wall of men instead of brick”
“that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know”
“Come, lady, die to live: this wedding day Perhaps is but prolong’d: have patience and endure.”
“Steady, old boy, steady. We'll make it. Just stand still,”
“The first qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only the second; hardship, poverty and want, are the best school for a soldier”
Frequently cited
“Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.”
“if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth”
“I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.”
“judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war.”
“I can be glad I've HAD my legs, anyway”
Frequently cited
“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 they comfort me.”
Frequently cited
“France is alone; and God is alone; and what is my loneliness before the loneliness of my country and my God?”
“That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity.”
“Your body, my little friend, is about the size of an ordinary man's finger. Pray, how big may your soul be?”
Frequently cited
“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
“If I fail, my death will be a glorious one, and if I succeed I shall have done a great service to my country.”
“I have only reached this happy state after having for years suffered every possible kind of toil and danger.”
Frequently cited
“I felt such vigour fill my veins, that all those pains of fever, all those fears of death, were quite forgotten.”
Frequently cited
“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 they comfort me”
“He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken.”
“Leap, fellow soldiers, unless you wish to betray your eagle to the enemy. I, for my part, will perform my duty to the commonwealth and my general”
Frequently cited
“Vertue gives her selfe light, through darkenesse for to wade.”
“In that disease of grieved conscience, And well could cure the same; his name was Patience.”
“he who overcomes in one trial merits thereby a sharper trial still.”
Frequently cited
“Both to act and to suffer with fortitude is a Roman's part.”
Frequently cited
“I believed Slave-keeping to be a Practice inconsistent with the _Christian_ Religion”
“I am the only white seal that has ever been born on the beaches, and I am the only seal, black or white, who ever thought of looking for new islands.”
“I am thine; do with me as thou seest best!”
Frequently cited
“I am really much more afraid of those people who have so great a fear of the devil, than I am of the devil himself.”
“Whenever the great principle of self-government — the right of the people to make their own Constitution, and come into the Union with slavery or without it, as they see proper, shall again arise, you will find me standing firm in defense of that principle, and fighting whoever fights it.”
“Lord, abate my great affliction, or increase my patience: but Lord, I repine not”
Frequently cited
“I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them.”
“by the same token we shall all one day be dead, but that is no reason why meantime we should all be buried alive”
“One does not become holy all at once.”
“Let him go--I will take his lashes.”
“It is a proverb, that he is Tyr-valiant, who surpasses other men and does not waver.”
“We two must help each other to be brave.”
Frequently cited
“My God, I choose everything, I will not be a Saint by halves, I am not afraid of suffering for Thee, I only fear one thing, and that is to do my own will.”
Frequently cited
“Every struggle is a victory.”
“Whenas men meet foes in fight, better is stout heart than sharp sword.”
“I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed”
“I think he was the bravest man in the world, for he was always shivering with fright, and yet nothing would choke him off.”
Frequently cited
“either I shall die, and be a ransom for one of the daughters of the Muslims, or I shall live, and be the cause of their deliverance from him.”
“willingly I die, let no man Confine these arms, I with undaunted breast Will meet the stroke.”
“at first an immense deal of adversity to go through, and then they will be famous.”
“But the man who will do his work in spite of his fear is a man of true courage.”
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a big beast like you, to bite a poor little dog!”
Frequently cited
“There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.”
Frequently cited
“There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging from grizzly bears to "mean" horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid.”
Frequently cited
“But life is a great adventure, and the worst of all fears is the fear of living.”
Frequently cited
“Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Frequently cited
“But now I’m a free man, standing on God’s free soil; and my wife and my child I claim as mine.”
Frequently cited
“No! no! no! my soul an’t yours, Mas’r! You haven’t bought it,—ye can’t buy it! It’s been bought and paid for, by one that is able to keep it”
“we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall work for others without rest, both now and when we are old”
“What would Cousin Ann do if she were here? She wouldn’t cry. She would THINK of something.”
Frequently cited
“success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Frequently cited
“Let what might happen, to the Crimea I would go. If in no other way, then would I upon my own responsibility and at my own cost.”
“And the grateful words and smile which rewarded me for binding up a wound or giving cooling drink was a pleasure worth risking life for at any time.”
Discussion questions
- Why does Aquinas say that enduring is harder than attacking?
- What is the difference between courage and rashness?
- Is there such a thing as moral courage without physical danger? Give an example.
- What made the courage of a character in your reading admirable?
Other virtues: Prudence · Justice · Temperance · Faith · Hope · Charity · Piety · Honor · Industry · Humility · Magnanimity · Friendship