an excerpt from "Why Courage Matters" by John McCain

"Not all of us will bear arms for our country. Few of us will ever rush into a burning
building to save others, or stand between criminals and their victims, or push beyond
the limits of our current knowledge to conquer their lives completely to the well-being
of others. Our country's success doesn't depend on universal heroism. Nor does our
individual happiness depend upon proving ourselves heroic.

But we do have to be worthy of the sacrifices made on our behalf. 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 posible 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. We'll need courage to be happy......We're all afraid of something.
Some have more fears than others for reasons too various to quantify and examine.
The one we must all guard against is the fear of ourselves.

Don't let the sensation of fear convince you that you're too weak to have courage. Fear
is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. No one is born a coward. We were
meant to love. And we were meant to have the courage for it. So be brave. The rest is easy."