Your favorite Hope/courage/defiance quotes

[Boulter_s_Canary]

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

— William Ernest Henley

---

'Fight on, fight on, my merry men all,
A little I am hurt, yet not slain;
I’ll but lie down and bleed a while,
Then come and fight with you again.

Child Ballad 167 “Andrew Barton”

---

I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand!
*
Tolkien - The Return of the King*

[blindboyard]

“Byorthwold spoke; he grasped his shield; he was an old companion; he shook his ash spear; full boldly he exhorted the warriors: ‘Thought shall be the harder, heart the keener, courage the greater, as our might lessens. Here lies our leader all hewn down, the valiant man in the dust; may he lament for ever who thinks now to turn from this war-play. I am old in age;
I will not hence, but I purpose to lie by the side of my lord, by the man so dearly loved.’”
– Battle of Maldon

[ivan_astikov]

“I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

• Helen Keller

[Machine_Elf]

Somewhat less epic than what’s been posted so far, but here’s one I like. I routinely teach other folks how to do their own motorcycle maintenance. Some folks are afraid to turn a wrench, and for them I offer this:

“…There’s a school of mechanical thought which says I shouldn’t be getting into a complex assembly I don’t know anything about. I should have training or leave the job to a specialist. That’s a self-serving school of mechanical eliteness I’d like to see wiped out…You’re at a disadvantage the first time around and it may cost you a little more because of parts you accidentally damage, and it will almost undoubtedly take a lot more time, but the next time around you’re way ahead of the specialist. You, with gumption, have learned the assembly the hard way and you’ve a whole set of good feelings about it that he’s unlikely to have.”

-Robert M. Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

[silenus]

“Today is a good day for somebody else to die!” - Dwarf war yell

[Slypork]

Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

In the movie Back to School, Rodney Dangerfield’s character is given an excruciating oral final exam. Exhausted, he has to recite Dylan Thomas’ poem. His teacher asks him what the poem means to him. He replies:

It means…I don’t take shit from no one. I’m gonna pass this test. I’m stayin’ in school! Who’s next?

[Oredigger77]

“Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil. For I am the meanest mother fucker in the valley” - One of my high school football coaches.

[Sailboat]

Second day of Gettysburg, US Civil War. The Confederates have won the last several battles and their reputation as fearsome attackers is at its height.

Confederate infantry is charging the center of the Union line – and hitting a gap in the line!

Union general Winfield Scott Hancock sees the gap and needs to fill it with troops. He needs five minutes he doesn’t have, to save the Union army.

The first unit he finds is the 1st Minnesota – 262 men, commanded by Colonel William Colville.

Hancock indicates the 1,600 screaming Confederates coming directly at them. “Colonel, do you see those colors?” Colville said he did.

“Then take them.”

@Historian Shelby Foote

The result was devastating. Colville and all but three of his officers were killed or wounded, together with 215 of his men. A captain brought the 47 survivors back up the ridge, less than one fifth as many as had charged down it. They had not taken the Alabama flag, but they had held on to their own. And they had given Hancock his five minutes, plus five more for good measure.

[Sailboat]

Sadly, this lovely story of elderly Napthali Daggett, former president of Yale, single-handedly facing British redcoats has been debunked.

Just after midnight on July 5, 1779, 48 British ships, crammed with 2,000 sailors and marines and 3,000 troops, appeared along the New Haven shoreline.

…

In Osterweis’s version, Daggett had “ridden out to battle on an old black mare” and taken up a position in the woods, where he began “shooting his long fowling piece at the advancing line of redcoats.” Then:

A British officer led a squad of men to remove the menace of the sniper and discovered to his amazement a 72-year-old professor with an antiquated weapon. ‘What are you doing there, you damned old rebel, firing on His Majesty’s troops?’ demanded the officer. ‘Exercising the rights of war,’ snapped Daggett. ‘If we should let you go,’ said the Englishman, 'would you continue this sort of thing?’ Again Daggett snapped back: ‘Nothing more likely.’ That was too much for the irritated invaders. They gave the old gentleman a beating, took off his shoes, and marched him along with them, barefooted and bleeding.

That’s too bad, because I can imagine exactly how Daggett would have drawled, “Exercising the rights of war.”

[Spoons]

“It’s not how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit, and still keep moving forward.”

– Rocky, in Rocky Balboa

[ivan_astikov]

I don’t know who said it, but what about “It ain’t the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog that counts.”?

[Northern_Piper]

@Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill to the House of Commons

To form an Administration of this scale and complexity is a serious undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered that we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many other points in Norway and in Holland, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous and that many preparations, such as have been indicated by my hon. Friend below the Gangway, have to be made here at home. In this crisis I hope I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today. I hope that any of my friends and colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the political reconstruction, will make allowance, all allowance, for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.

You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal.

But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, “come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”

Full audio link: Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat

@Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill to the House of Commons

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

**We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, **

and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Full audio version: We Shall Fight on the Beaches

@Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill to the House of Commons

What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’

Full audio link: Their Finest Hour

[History_Monk]

“The secret is not to dream,” she whispered. “The secret is to wake up. Waking up is harder. I have woken up and I am real. I know where I come from and I know where I’m going. You cannot fool me any more. Or touch me. Or anything that is mine.” – “The Wee Free Men”

[rivulus]

OK, I’m an atheist now, but I used to find this biblical passage very inspiring. Romans 8:37-39:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

fist pump

[Taomist]

“What Would Corporal Carrot Do?”
Comes in handy when I really just cannot take any more bullshit from co-workers. :smack:

[Trepa_Mayfield]

"There are now only 7 parts that I still need to retrieve. Will I be able to recover the remaining parts in 3 more days? Surely there are some parts that are not absolutely necessary. If my ship is not complete by day 30, the only way I will find out is to try to lift off.

I just recalled the day I took my son for a ride in this spaceship. He was so happy… I shall tell him of this journey when I return. And I shall return! I must! I can already see the look of wonder on his precious face as I describe my adventures with the Pikmin…"

–Captain Olimar, from Pikmin

[Civil_Guy]

Don’t know where this one comes from, but:

Any fool can die for a cause. It takes real courage to live for one.

[Tethered_Kite]

'Tis just a flesh wound. . .Come on back here and take what’s coming to you, you yellow bastard! I’ll bite your legs off."

The Black Knight, “Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail”

[Brynda]

As a recent widow, this spoke to me:

It was nothing like her first marriage. This time around, she proceeded knowng that people died; that everything had an end:that even though she and Dave were spending every day together and every night, the moment would come when she would say," Tomorrow it will be two years since I last set eyes on him." Or else he would say it of her. Anne Tyler, Digging to America

[History_Monk]

You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

Wow.

Tethered kite, that’s hilarious.

“Does not happen!” from Nation