I mean, it's like we all get our raw materials from our families―but it's up to us whether we build bridges or bombs.
Neal ShustermanRead
They say you never know who's the real hero and who's the real coward until you're looking death in the face. I've always been afraid of plenty of things, but fear isn't what makes you a coward. It's how depraved your heart becomes when fear gets pumped through it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True courage comes from the heart, not the absence of fear.
This quote emphasizes that bravery is not the lack of fear but rather the ability to confront fear with integrity and morality. It points out that when faced with life-threatening situations, one's true character is revealed, and a coward is defined not by their fear, but by their moral decay when succumbing to that fear.
Themes
CourageFearCharacterHeroismMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage others to face their fears.
More from Neal Shusterman
All quotes →Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one's life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.
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Unwinds didn't go out with a bang-they didn't even go out with a whimper. they went out with the silence of a candle flame pinched between two fingers.
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She smiles at them as they go by and continues to play, making it clear that this furnace of a place, full of planes that cannot fly, is more than it seems. It is a womb of redemption for every Unwind, and fora ll those who fought the Heartland War and lost - which was everybody.
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Words don't hurt you." Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.
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Which is worse, Risa often wondered, to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make then go away before they were even born
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