The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.

Real courage is stranger than it looks, because it usually happens with no audience and often without the person feeling brave at all. It is generous in that it is nearly always spent on somebody else: the witness who speaks, the friend who stays, the person who takes the harder job so another does not have to. And it carries pride in the good sense, being one of the few things you cannot fake to yourself afterwards.

Think of a time you acted well when it cost you something. Notice that you probably felt frightened rather than heroic. That is what it is supposed to feel like.