John McCain in Why Courage Matters

On Principles & Values: Courage is the capacity for action despite our fears

We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action despite our fears. The stories cherished most by all sinners whose consciences are not permanently mute concern the life-redeeming act of courage They’re not, however, as abundant in real life as they are in fiction. Better to look to the lives of good men and women who in a crucible risked or sacrificed their own security for someone else. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 8 Apr 1, 2004

On Principles & Values: Humility from surviving veterans is remarkable

“I don’t like to be called a hero,” Benavidez complained, and then, in the familiar refrain of veterans from all wars, he offered the observation, “The real heroes are the ones who gave their lives for their country.” That kind of humility from surviving veterans who distinguished themselves in combat is so commonplace that we’ve come to expect it from them. We don’t take it seriously. We even suspect that it’s false. We don’t see how remarkable it is. They mean it. Every word. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 11 Apr 1, 2004

On Homeland Security: We don’t have as much to fear as we had in the past

Crime rates rise and fall and rise again, and claim victims and leave tragedies behind, but lawlessness is still much less prevalent today than it was a century ago. We are the world’s only superpower, with armed forces so powerful that they deter all but the most irrational of adversaries from significantly challenging our security. We don’t have as much to fear as we had in the past. Courage may be in scarce supply, but the demand appears down as well. And we have come to grade courage on the curve. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 21 Apr 1, 2004

On War & Peace: The cause of the Iraqi war was just

Although the guerrilla war that followed in its aftermath has proved tougher and lasted longer than expected, the destruction of Saddam’s armed forces was quick and decisive. The enemy was vastly overmatched. But the cause was just, and I believe necessary, and our soldiers fought as bravely and as competently and as humanely as they were asked. They earned their honor. Their heroism was no less distinguished because they enjoyed an overwhelming advantage in high-tech weaponry. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 23 Apr 1, 2004

On Homeland Security: Those who gave their lives deserve to be remembered

Those who gave their lives in service to their country deserve to be remembered. Should, as we hope & intend, another people in a country far from ours gain & keep their own right to self-determination, that would be an accomplishment worth remembering. But will it? The thrill of it will fade away. We constantly seek new ones and the shelf life of their effect contracts correspondingly. Will we attempt to inspire our own courage some distant day by recalling the heroics of our compatriots in Iraq? Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 24 Apr 1, 2004

On Principles & Values: Just government is derived from the consent of the governed

Few of us will fight in any kind of war. There’s not much chance of truly big, historically important political conflict in this country, either. What do politicians fight about anymore? The size of tax cuts. What to spend our money on. These are the most common areas of domestic policy disagreements. We’re all pretty much agreed on the big question-whether man is endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights and that just government is derived from the consent of the governed. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 34 Apr 1, 2004

On Principles & Values: We need moral courage to be honest all the time

Most of us accept social norms: that it’s right to be honest, to respect the rights of others, to have compassion. But accepting the appropriateness of these qualities, wanting them, and teaching our children to want them aren’t the same as actually possessing them. Accepting their validity isn’t moral courage. How honest are we if we tell the truth most of the time & stay silent only when telling the truth might get us fired or earn us a broken nose? We need moral courage to be honest all the time. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 42 Apr 1, 2004

On Principles & Values: Do the thing you think you cannot do

Though it is as apparent and as insufficient an explanation of how we obtain courage, that doesn’t make it useless advice. Eleanor Roosevelt managed to live an exceptionally useful life by following the prescription, useful to her and to many others, burdened though she was by her insecurities and doubts. Again, maybe her resolve wasn’t exactly as empowering a condition as courage, but what more do most of use need courage for than to live life according to the dictates of our conscience? Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 48 Apr 1, 2004

On Civil Rights: Fear did not restrain Dr. King to resist repression

Better to suffer for a good cause than live safely without one. Dr. King’s cause was the dignity of his race and the full realization of America’s founding values. He is, rightly, held up as an exemplar of moral courage. He was a believer in nonviolence who had courage of conscience, the courage to resist repression, to live his moral code. He was murdered for his willingness to act on his beliefs, a fate many of his admirers believe he anticipated and must have feared. Yet fear did not restrain him. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 91 Apr 1, 2004

On Civil Rights: John Lewis was as courageous as anyone could ever hope to be

In the summer of 1966, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Congress for Racial Equality recruited white students from northern states to help southern blacks register to vote. They chose to focus their campaign in Mississippi, a bastion of segregation, where southern bigotry was as obdurately defiant as had been the Confederate defenders. Three white kids from the North were kidnapped and murdered by Ku Klux Klan terrorists. Even the goal of integration was cast aside by some, and in its place the surer appeal of an easier pride, black separatism, rose to claim popular support. John Lewis was one of the bravest of those who stayed true to the faith. They couldn’t scare the courage out of him. They couldn’t beat it out of him, either. Writing in The Washington Post, Lewis remembered, “A young man named Jimmy Lee was shot in the stomach when he stepped in to protect his grandfather. He died from his wounds several days later. The plan to march from Selma to Montgomery was our response. Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 96 Apr 1, 2004

On Principles & Values: The allure of pride affects adults like it affects children

We don’t experience empathetic apprehension and pain by urging our children to be always honest, always fair, always respectful, the virtues that will alert them of their duty. We don’t usually imagine their possession of those virtues provoking much more than the admiration of adults, their teachers, our neighbors and friends. If we’re honest, we have in the backs of our minds as we impart these lessons to our children our own pride, our regard for our children as a reflection of our parenting. Source: Why Courage Matters, p.111 Apr 1, 2004

On Foreign Policy: Suu Kyi and the people of Burma will rule themselves someday

On the first public appearance following her release from house arrest in 2002, Aung San Suu Kyi apologized to her people. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting. But my freedom is not a major triumph for democracy; my freedom is not the object of our struggle.” So she fights on. And she will prevail. The regime must relent eventually. Suu Kyi and the people of Burma will rule themselves someday. The tyrants who have opposed and terrorized them for so long are simply no match for them. They lack their courage. Source: Why Courage Matters, p.165 Apr 1, 2004

On Principles & Values: We are indebted to those who shed blood for us

Pay your debts. The firefighters, police officers, and emergency workers who raced toward the danger that others fled, or tried to flee, bestowed by their sacrifice an obligation on the rest of us. The soldiers who embarked to distant, dangerous lands, to take the war to our enemies and away from us, away from our loved ones, bestowed an obligation on us. So, too, did the soldiers on Peleiu, in Korea, in Vietnam, and in all the savage battles in all the wars of our history. They are blood debts we owe. Source: Why Courage Matters, p.201 Apr 1, 2004

On Principles & Values: It’s love that makes courage necessary

We have to value our freedom. We have to love it, not for the ease or material riches it provides, not just for the autonomy it guarantees us, but for the goodness it makes possible. And we have to love it so much that we will not let it be constrained by fear. It’s love, then, that makes courage necessary. And it’s love that makes courage possible for all of us to possess. We must love freedom for the right reasons. And, on occasion, our love will need courage to survive, to insist on our freedom. Source: Why Courage Matters, p.203 Apr 1, 2004

The above quotations are from Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life, by John McCain with Mark Salter. Click here for other excerpts from Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life, by John McCain with Mark Salter. Click here for other excerpts by John McCain. Click here for a profile of John McCain.
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