Life is going to give us many lessons to learn as we pursue an existence filled with happiness. There are people in history who have had their fair share of adversity and struggle, but who have come out with more courage and determination than can be understood by those who haven’t.
When you have to deal with a difficult experience in your life, your perspective on the world changes. You seek ways to be happier, you notice misery in others and you wish to help them, and you gain a better understanding of what it takes to be happy and free. The people below did just that, and through their own personal sacrifices, they gave so much the people they were fighting for.
The quotes below are from those people in history who had to deal with great challenges, and learned a think or two about courage in life along the way. We share them with you here.
1. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston Churchill
Having to deal with being the only country in Europe who was left fighting against Hitler during WW2, Winston Churchill showed great courage in unifying his people against a deadly force of oppression and supremacism. The UK was under constant bombardment and all of his allies had already surrendered or had been invaded and lost, and yet Churchill stood up for what he believed and fought on. His actions, and the courage of all the allied forces led to the defeat of a devastating ideology and the freedom of Europe.
2. “Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity.” – Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela – Long Walk To Freedom – 1990
This poignant quote from Nelson Mandela has an even deeper meaning after his passing. This man became a leader of a movement which fought apartheid in South Africa. The white minority of South Africa were involved in many discriminatory and unjust acts against the black African population, and as the leader of a rights movement, Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and was subjected to decades of physical and mental abuse at the hands of his captors. Their intention was to break his resolve, and yet his resolve only got stronger.
His duty for what was right and his belief in the freedom of all people gave him the courage to fight on. Upon his release in 1990, he negotiated an end to apartheid and helped establish the first multi-racial elections in 1994, which he won.
3. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
The story of Mahatma Gandhi is long and complex, and those of you interested in his life should check out his autobiography. As an into his life, Gandhi was a civil rights leader in India fighting colonial and discriminatory British rule. Having trained as a lawyer in London, Gandhi first fought for civil rights in South Africa, and upon his return to India in 1915, he led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women’s rights, building religious and ethnic amity, and achieving self-rule for the Indian people.
He was imprisoned on many occasions, in both South Africa and India. He lived a modest life in a self-sufficient community, and he always advocated non-violence even in the most troubling of times.
4. “I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
The roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius was a prominent and influential leader of the Roman empire. His Meditations became a significant piece of Stoic writing, proposing a life that is lived with reason, logic, justice and honor as its main motivators, and by using nature as a source of inspiration and guidance. He never let his standing affect how he treated others, and he employed someone in his entourage whose sole purpose was to keep the emperor grounded by reminding him that “He was just a man and nothing more”.
5. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. March On Washington Speech – 1963
There are moments in history when oppression and discrimination by a majority on a defenseless minority pushes someone to take action. Someone courageous enough to stand up to a greater power, without fear for their own lives and any other repercussions that come with standing up for justice when no one else will. Martin Luther King Jr. was a clergyman who became the voice and the leader of the African-American civil rights movement.
Following decades of segregated oppression, King Jr. led a non-violent movement and following his march on Washington speech, became one the greatest orators in American history. His quote refers to people’s ability to ignore oppression, and by turning a blind eye to these acts, we become complicit.
6. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
― Socrates
//
The Greek philosopher Socrates is credited as being one of the founders of Western philosophy. His Socratic method, in which a series of questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand, helped people gain insight into why they do what they do, with the intention of giving people more purpose to their actions.
His questioning of the elite classes, and his realization that many of them, after being questioned about their purpose in life, were unable to give him an answer, Socrates realized that ignorance and arrogance were strife in Athens. After being told by an oracle that he was the wisest man in Athens, Socrates set out to prove this premonition to be false, but his questioning of the ruling class of Athens led him to believe that not only was he himself bereft of knowledge, but so were they. This therefore made him the wisest because he was aware of his ignorance unlike those in charge. He is noted as a courageous man because at his eventual trial and execution, he refused to apologize as he believed he was doing no wrong.
By questioning those in power, we question their reasoning and when there are no answers, there is a sign that something needs to be done. After being executed for corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods, Socrates became an iconic figure and his students continued his legacy and which lives on to this day.
