Courage essay free essay sample

They help us understand everything around us, from peoples Ideas to their feelings, to all sorts of concepts of Ideology and life. Without definitions we would not know what anything would be, mean, act for, and so on. Definitions are an essential part of life that helps us cope with many things by helping us understand a broader perspective of objects and ideas. As a freshman in English class, one of our assignments was to read Solitude and Leadership by William Directories which Is an extended deflation of the words solitude and leadership.William Directories used different methods to define the two words including quotes, examples, characteristics, and reference to Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which in my case was one of the hardest novels I had to read. One of the definitions Directories gives us is solitude means being alone, and leadership necessitates the presence of others, both words contradicting themselves. Directories uses a series of characteristics to define the words, which included words such as courage, Independence, thinking, creativity, honor, concentration. Nests, Introspection, friendship. And morality among others. Courage was one characteristic that stood out to me. Courage can be interpreted in many ways. According to the Oxford English Dictionary one way, courage is defined as the heart as a seat of feeling, thought, etc. ; spirit, mind, disposition, nature. Another definition that was provided was that courage is applied to a persons spirit and yet another definition was spirit, liveliness, lustiness, vigor, vital force or energy. All three definitions contained the word split In them, and I believe that ones split s really Important in relation to courage because It Is what keeps us going. I can say that courage drives our spirit because without courage we would not do the many things that we have done and will do. For example, we would not talk to someone we really like without having the courage to go up to him or her right? According to the essay by Directories, there is two types of courage one being physical which he says we all possess in abundance and moral courage, which Is the courage that allows us to stand up for what we believe (175).Courage drives us to the many things we do in everyday life whether it is something simple like having the courage to argues our ideas or something adventurous like skydiving (175). To myself , courage contains some of the same characteristics, but I can out it into different words. Courage is a quality of mind or spirit that leads one to make certain decisions. Defining courage this way makes much more sense to me. Courage is very Important because without It we probably would not be In certain situations we are way from home all on my own living with someone who was once a complete stranger to me.I believe that that took tons of courage from me. Without courage many of us would not be away home our homes starting our college careers, which will prepare us for our future careers. Courage is a drive one must have to keep our spirit going. As a freshman in college, I have set goals that I hope to achieve by the end of the year. I believe that courage can help achieve many goals. For example, one of my goals is to leave here with the courage to take up more rigorous classes next year.Taking up more challenging courses is definitely going to require courage because college can already be difficult for some and taking up more can be a harder task. Another goal I wish to accomplish is to learn from all that will be done this year and apply it to the future. This goal can also take a bit of courage because learning from mistakes and applying the experience onto the future can be difficult. Courage is a really important characteristic to contain.No matter what age or situation, courage is extremely important, Just having the mentality of wanting to do something and being able to do it says a lot about a persons character. After reading the Solitude and Leadership I suddenly realize that there are many things that take part in building character. Courage goes a very long way. It helps us decide on certain ideas, gestures, etc. Being able to take the essay and go onto defining a word in my own terms, like in the essay, took courage because many people can Judge my ideology but having that courage the author spoke about and arguing for my own idea took courage. Courage Essay free essay sample One person explained how it took their baby a lot of courage to take its iris step, and another saying how he took the training wheels off of his childs bicycle, hoping his child had enough courage to get on that bicycle and ride it. Most of my research done on Google was very hard to find, meaning I had to refine definition of courage significantly. A lot of pages also came up that had nothing to do with the word courage whatsoever. My first source, Dictionary. Com, had many different definitions.The one I found to be the most accurate for being a dictionary definition was, Courage; the quality of mind or split that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. ; without fear; bravery. To me, this definition Is pretty spot-on, but It also lacks the emotion and deepness others see In the definition of courage. Thesaurus. Com being my second source, gave me, Boldness, braveness, as a definition. This definition is also, in my opinion, very vague and doesnt explain courage in great detail.The words boldness and braveness only make up a minute fraction of what courage means to me. After looking at famous quotes online from the Holy Bible about courage, I found one that aught my attention. It reads, David also said to Solomon his son, Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD Is finished. -l Chronicles 28:20. This verse can mean a lot of different things too lot of different people.To me, It means work hard your whole life no matter what Is In your way, for God Is always there with you to help you through It. Even If you arent Christian, this verse can brighten your day Just reading It. When scrolling through a couple websites containing Shakespeare, I came across a play he wrote, called Alls Well That Ends Well. The work says, Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak His powerful sound within an organ weak: And what impossibility would slay In common sense, sense saves another way.Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate Worth name of life in thee hath estimate, Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all That happiness and prime can happy call: Thou this to hazard needs must intimate Skill infinite or monstrous desperate. Sweet practices, thy physic I will try, That ministers thin own death if I die Len this work, Shakespeare pretty much Just summarizes how dear life is and how much you should cherish it each and every day. Shakespeare also gives such qualities a human being would need to thrive on this planet, one being courage. This verse from the poem A Far Cry From Africa by Derek Walcott also got my attention. Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break In a white dust of ibises whose cries Have wheeled since civilizations dawn As natural law, but upright man Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain. Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum, While he calls courage still that native dread Of the white peace contracted by the dead. This poem brings a sense of sorrow but also a great meaning. It explains how man is the dominant species overall and since this is true, man has to inflict pain because of his high authority.But then the end of the poem brings reassurance, saying he honors he beast he has killed by forming peace between the two after death. Later coming across a famous quote from Sequestrations. Com, I read it and instantly knew this was the one I wanted to write about. Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount,-Clare Booth Luck. After reading this once, I instantly knew the meaning. Courage is a virtue, but not Just any virtue. It is the basis of all virtues. Do you think a cheetah would be able to get food if it didnt take the risk of chasing down a wildebeest for a half hour?No, it wouldnt. That is why courage is required for everything to survive, not Just humans. In my overall search to find a real definition of the word courage, it was very difficult to actually pinpoint that one saying, quotation, or even poem that had the exact definition I was looking for. Honestly, it was hard researching the different objects containing the word courage and even harder to pick them out of a poem or writing. If I had to do this project over again, I would probably have gone to the library more and tried to organize and gather as much research as possible.