I am an avid reader, so much so that I even jump into my wife’s reading material if it happens to be laying around. She’s reading “Failure Is Not An Option” for work and I’d like to share some excerpts from chapter two with you guys.

This is one of those reads that has a famous quote at the beginning of each chapter. Author, Alan M. Blankstein, included five of them at the beginning of chapter two’s Courageous Leadership for School Success. Reflect on these and see what they do for you.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Courage faces fear and thereby masters it; cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it. We must constantly build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others.

- Aristotle

Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning. Courage is, rightly esteemed, the first of human qualities, because…it is the quality that guarantees all others.

- Sir Winston Churchill

Courage may be the most important of all virtues, because without it one cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.

- Maya Angelou

Courage, the footstool of the virtues, upon which they stand.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

I love a great quote that teaches you how to live and the character of person you should always strive to be. Medidate on these thoughts and make that next great leap in your life.