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Courage (n.): Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty; the ability to control your fear in a dangerous or difficult situation.
The use of the word courage declined from the 1800 to its lowest in the 1980s, but has been gaining in popularity again since the 2000s. Poet David Whyte says courage “is a word that tempts us to think outwardly, to run bravely against opposing fire, to do something under besieging circumstances, and perhaps, above all, to be seen to be doing it in public, to show courage: to be celebrated in story, rewarded with medals, given the accolade. But to look to its linguistic origins is to look in a more interior direction.” The word courage, in fact, comes from the old Norman French word coeur, meaning heart.
Origin and etymology of courage: c. 1300, corage, denoting the heart, as the seat of feelings. -from french, courage, cœur - from latin cor (heart). In Middle English, the word was used broadly for "what is in one's mind or thoughts," hence "bravery," but also "wrath, pride, confidence, lustiness," or any sort of inclination.
[Sources: Merriam Webster, Cambridge Dictionary, Etymonline]
“Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilise, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn't trust the evidence of one's eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilisatrice.” ― Edward W. Said
Xenophile (n.): A person who has a love of foreign people and culture; A person with an interest in celebrating people's differences.
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” — George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
“[People] fall into a cult of big hero/rockstar worship and don’t appreciate the efforts of small local ‘invisible’ everyday heroes and their small acts.” — Manish Jain
