I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it.
Anderson CooperRead
I don't think I'm fearless at all. I think anybody who says they're fearless doesn't last very long. I think I'm pretty cautious, actually.
Interpretation
True courage involves acknowledging fear rather than denying it.
Anderson Cooper's quote emphasizes that contrary to popular belief, true courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the ability to recognize and confront it. By admitting his own cautiousness, Cooper highlights the importance of being aware of one's limitations and challenges instead of portraying an unrealistic image of fearlessness, which can be detrimental in the long run.
In practice
During a motivational talk about mental health, one might use this quote to illustrate that it's okay to feel fear.
I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it.
Each child’s story is worthy of telling. There shouldn’t be a sliding scale of death. The weight of it is crushing.
Be honest about what you see, get out of the way and let the story reveal itself
The tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.
The map of the world is always changing; sometimes it happens overnight. All it takes is the blink of an eye, the squeeze of a trigger, a sudden gust of wind. Wake up and your life is perched on a precipice; fall asleep, it swallows you whole.
That's the thing about suicide. Try as you might to remember how a person lived his life, you always end up thinking about how he ended it.
I wanted to take part in the liberation of even a small piece of enslaved Latin America.
I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery, and by the blessing of God, I will never go back.
I dare not so honor my mere wishes and prayers as to put them for a moment beside your noble acts; but this know, I would rather submit to the worst of deaths, so far as pain goes, than have a single dog or cat tortured on the pretence of sparing me a twinge or two.
You can't disobey the rules every time you disapprove. However, when you're considering something that constitutes an extreme abridgement of your rights, conscience is the court of last resort.
The fears that assault us are mostly simple anxieties about social skills, about intimacy, about likeableness, or about performance. We need not give emotional food or charge to these fears or become attached to them. We don’t even have to shame ourselves for having these fears. Simply ask your fears, “What are you trying to teach me?” Some say that FEAR is merely an acronym for “False Evidence Appearing Real.” From Everything Belongs, p. 143
The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.
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