It takes courage… – Sunday, February 14, 1960
Last week we quoted William James on faith as an essential element to the success of all ventures. Now we should like to pursue a further phase of the same subject, beginning with some sentences from Emerson who said: “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires . . . courage……. There is no significant decision of life that doesn’t require a kind of courage, and no typical day of life that doesn’t require a kind of courage; and certainly, there is no great venture in life that doesn’t require courage. Sometime ago we quoted a phrase to the effect that “1
Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.”‘ It takes courage to be different. It takes courage to side with someone who is being unfairly abused. It takes courage to befriend someone who is in popular disfavor. It takes courage to advocate an unpolitical or unprofitable opinion. It takes courage to speak out in favor of an unpopular proposal, or an inconvenient or unpopular principle. It takes courage to turn down a dare. It takes courage to ignore derision, even when one is right. Sometimes it takes courage to run away from an evil proposal, for evil, like misery, loves company, and doesn’t make it easy for anyone to run out on it. Often it takes courage to find the peace that comes with repenting.
Pursuing anything that isn’t easy, anything that isn’t popular, anything that isn’t soon successful, requires courage. The critics are often cruel, sometimes honestly, sometimes for reasons that are other than honest. Sometimes they are right; sometimes they are wrong. But anyone who stands for anything, who says anything, who does anything that amounts to much, must face the critics—and it requires courage. “Whatever you do, you need courage”2—especially the courage that comes with a conviction of right—and the equal, or even almost greater courage—the courage to repent from wrong. Life itself, with its every significant decision, requires courage.
1Accredited to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Source unknown
2An approximate quotation accredited to Dr. Samuel Johnson. Original source and exact wording unknown.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, February 14, 1960, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1960