Fear is the Shadow

Risks

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is risk failure.

But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing.

They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.

Chained by their certitudes, they are a slave, they have forfeited their freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

~ Anonymous


"Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.

Avoiding danger is not safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

--Helen Keller
Let Us Have Faith, 1940