On Courage

After the attack on Building One of the World Trade Center on September 11, our son was able to leave the building safely. "As I was getting out," he said, "those firemen were going in and up those stairs." He was almost reverent in the way he spoke of those brave men. On page one of today's Manhasset Press, the wife of one of those firefighters tells the tale of the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department's contribution that day and in the days that followed. Talk about "Profiles in Courage!" In recognition of their efforts, we offer a few reflections on courage.

"Fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action...so they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received, each for his own memory, praise that will never die. For you now it remains to rival what they have done and, knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy's onset."

Thucydides

"One man with courage makes a majority."

Andrew Jackson

"Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free...They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."

Louis Brandeis

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt