Book excerpt: Through a broad scope of quotations, poems, and true-life stories, Inspiring Courage offers inspiration to help us authentically live life to the fullest, even against all odds. How can we manage to move forward in the face of hardship, when the odds aren’t in our favor? Inspiring Courage offers us a beautiful companion to the challenges of daily life—it is a book of inspiration and a resource for finding strength when the very notion of courage seems unfathomable. This collection of quotations, poetry, and uplifting accounts of ordinary acts of life-changing courage—often in the face of fear—are carefully selected to open us up to living life fully, from a place of strength and love. In this book we are inspired to all kinds of courage: courage to live a human life, courage to face disaster, and courage to help an ailing world. Included are stories of ordinary people who have faced illness, loss, and discrimination, and taken on political challenges and the environmental crisis. Selected poems and quotations include figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mark Twain, the Buddha, Maya Angelou, Rainer Maria Rilke, Pema Chodron, Rumi, Wendell Berry, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many more.