The Most Effective Way To Ensure The

The Acorn Becomes An Oak By Means Of Automatic Growth; No Commitment Is Necessary. The Kitten Similarly Becomes A Cat On The Basis Of Instinct. Nature And Being Are Identical In Creatures Like Them. But A Man Or Woman Becomes Fully Human Only By His Or Her Choices And His Or Her Commitment To Them. People Attain Worth And Dignity By The Multitude Of Decisions They Make From Day By Day. These Decisions Require Courage.

Many People Suffer From The Fear Of Finding Oneself Alone, And So They Don't Find Themselves At All.

To Say A Person Is A Coward Has No More Meaning Than To Say He Is Lazy: It Simply Tells Us That Some Vital Potentiality Is Unrealized Or Blocked.

Human Freedom Involves Our Capacity To Pause Between The Stimulus And Response And, In That Pause, To Choose The One Response Toward Which We Wish To Throw Our Weight. The Capacity To Create Ourselves, Based Upon This Freedom, Is Inseparable From Consciousness Or Self-awareness. (p. 100)

Courage Is Not A Virtue Of Value Among Other Personal Values Like Love Or Fidelity. It Is The Foundation That Underlies And Gives Reality To All Other Virtues And Personal Values. Without Courage Our Love Pales Into Mere Dependency. Without Courage Our Fidelity Becomes Conformism.