Courage: The Call for Courage

"Life’s journey is not traveled on a freeway devoid of obstacles, pitfalls, and snares. Rather, it is a pathway marked by forks and turnings. Decisions are constantly before us. To make them wisely, courage is needed: the courage to say, “No,” the courage to say, “Yes.” Decisions do determine destiny.

The call for courage comes constantly to each of us. It has ever been so, and so shall it ever be….

Of course, we will face fear, experience ridicule, and meet opposition. Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but also as a determination to live decently. A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh. Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well….

Someone has said that courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it.1 At times, courage is needed to rise from failure, to strive again."

President Thomas S. Monson, "The Call for Courage", April 2004 General Conference, Priesthood Session

1. See Mark Twain, in Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich, eds., The Harper Book of American Quotations (1988), 111.

Read or watch the entire address here.

Learn more about the Prophet Thomas S. Monson.

*Photo source: http://news.byu.edu/archive11-nov-presmonsondevo.aspx