Despite what society at large seems to think of the word, despite the thesaurus having fearlessness as a synonym for it, courage is not a complete absence of fear. A complete absence of fear in the face of danger is either stupidity or ignorance. This is the type of disposition that will soon led to deadness. Courage is the ability to take stock of the risks, the dangers, and the pain required to accomplish the goal; to completely understand what is at stake, and then to continue despite the fear involved. A person can have physical courage, the ability to face a challenge despite the pain and possible death that may occur. A person might have moral courage, the ability to do what is right in word and in action, despite the pressure by society to do otherwise. A person could also have social courage, such as having the courage to stand up and give a speech to a crowded room. One could have intellectual courage by facing perviously held thought patterns and judging if they are indeed correct, to ask those pesky hard questions of ourselves and of others.
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen," Winston Churchill.
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