Quotes on Daring | Living Moxie

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Having the Courage to Dare

I don’t know if you were ever dared as a child.

I was.

And I always accepted the challenge. Even though some were dangerous and reckless.

As an adult I may not dare or double dare myself in the same way but there are still times when I experience the feelings of daring myself. It feels like standing at a cliff edge and knowing the only way to grow and develop is to make the leap, to take a step, to trust myself, my skills, my learning, my belief that everything will be okay.

To dare doesn’t need to be reckless. To dare is an act of courage, daring, a challenge.

I realise that you may not agree with the quotes below, that’s the thing about quotes we either love or loathe. Some give us a quick lesson and others leave us stumped. So, if you have a few favourites please leave them in the comments below, you’re an original and I’m sure your list will be different to mine.

1. Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. Cecil Beaton

To be the one who is stepping away from the norm takes courage. I love the phrase ‘slave of the ordinary’ to me in conjures up images of the start of the film Metropolis. Set in 2026, we see formed lines of workers, walking in sync, heads down and nothing to differentiate one person from another. They are slaves to work, to a system, to the rules, to the common place.

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2. Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We never know how anything is going to go in life. We can plan, organise, write down pros and cons lists, set goals for ourselves with timescales attached, but still we don’t know. Sometimes in life we need to dare ourselves to start, to begin, to make a move.

3. It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution. Alvin Toffler

On first reading I didn’t think I liked this quote. There is nothing wrong with being sightly cautious is there? But to always be cautious? To be on permanent alert and guard making sure that no risks are ever taken? Not for me, I prefer to err with the daring, you?

4. The loving are the daring. Bayard Taylor

To love deeply, to care, to show compassion, to open ourselves up fully to others even with the risk that the love will end, change, perhaps turn to anger and hate. But still we love even with the knowledge and experience of what has been before, that’s courageous.

5. If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just. Anita Roddick

Being just. Being honorable, true to your word, fair, congruent and consistent.

6. You can’t outwit fate by standing on the side-lines placing little side bets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything you have to play the game or you don’t play at all. And if you don’t play you can’t win. Judith McNaught

Win against what? Who? Although this quote asks us to embrace life fully I have a slight problem with the ‘win’ thing. Maybe you don’t, maybe you see winning as perfectly okay. And that’s fine too. But McNaught is right so far, if we aren’t there, in it, showing up and embracing life we aren’t really living, merely existing.

7. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller

Enough said.

8. Courage to me is doing something daring, no matter how afraid,

insecure, intimidated, alone, unworthy, incapable, ridiculed

or whatever other paralysing emotions you might feel.

Courage is taking action…no matter what.

So you’re afraid? Be afraid.

Be scared silly to the

point you’re

trembling

and nauseous,

but do it anyway!

Richelle E. Goodrich

This is my favourite. It’s the quote that recognises the fears we all have … from time to time. It’s what call an ‘ass kick’ quote. I get it. Do you?

9. People should always force themselves to do daring things. Gordon Forbes

10. Devote today to something so daring even you can’t believe you’re doing it. Oprah

And they don’t have to be the big life adventures. I hear the phrase all the time, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’ on charity firewalks. Groups of people coming together for a common cause, daring themselves to push their boundaries. But the some things don’t have to be that big, they can be simple tasks and actions you have been putting of because of the fears mentioned in quote 8. It’s not the size of the dare, it’s the follow through that matters.

11. We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring. Georges Jacques Danton

Yes. Because every day we are faced with new challenges.

12. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. André Gide

Love this. How many of us stay on the shore, never setting sail? To have the courage to step out into the unknown takes guts. Sometimes we have to give up and let go of what we know and what feels secure in order to change and grow.

13. If you get the chance to do something and don’t do it then you’ll simply live with regret. That’s a worse situation than trying something daring and maybe not succeeding. At least you tried. Lorena Bathey

I’m not convinced we’ll always live with regret if we say no to certain things. But I don’t think that’s the story Bathey is trying to tell. You? Would rather try knowing there is a possibility of failure, rather than not try at all?

14. Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see. William Newton Clarke

Faith: totally confident in your belief. I adore this quote. I know myself I sometimes think smaller than what I am capable of. Sometimes we can only see so far based on our beliefs (conditioning) of what is and isn’t possible for us. What do you think of this one?

15. It’s daring to be curious about the unknown, to dream big dreams, to live outside prescribed boxes, to take risks, and above all, daring to investigate the way we live until we discover the deepest treasured purpose of why we are here. Luci Swindoll

Daring to investigate? I love it. To become our own detectives. Searching and seeking for our own truth. Asking powerful questions. Ripping apart learnings and relearning.