Bravery is the ability to confront something painful or difficult or dangerous without any fear. It’s a quality, not a state of mind; it doesn’t need a cause to awaken it. Someone is brave—full stop. To the person who has it, it’s effortless; it’s eating a caterpillar on the playground because a friend dares you to, without a second thought. It’s jumping from the highest diving board without any hesitation.
Courage, on the other hand, is the ability to confront something painful or difficult or dangerous despite any fear. It’s not a quality, but a choice; a person feels the fear or pain or danger, but chooses to persevere anyway. Unlike bravery, courage is driven by a cause; the courageous person believes that cause is worth standing up and fighting for, despite all the clear reasons not to. It takes a great effort, because what’s on the other end merits it.
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Bravery
The main thing that really sets the mental state of bravery apart is a lack of fear.
Before the word brave entered the English language around the 15th century, it was first the word “bravo.” This term appeared in various romance languages around the Old World.
For example, in Italian, it means bold.
Need an example of a brave act?
Imagine a soldier charging into battle.
They have little fear or concern for what might happen to them. They’ve got a mission that they feel they’re trying to achieve for the greater good. So they put concern for themselves aside. Regardless of the conflict and physical danger that they might face.
That’s at least how they’re usually portrayed in our history books.
As a less extreme example, you can think about kids on a playground.
Imagine a kid being dared to touch a spider or any number of other activities that their peers may have dared them to do.
Usually, those who accept such challenges and dares are the bravest among us. They’re willing to go ahead and do something that needs to be done. Without necessarily having to stop and weigh the pros and cons before taking action.
There’s a strong air of confidence that surrounds the concept of bravery.
Courage
The origin of the word courage is distinct and separate from that of bravery. It’s more of a virtue.
People often define courageous acts as something that comes from the heart.
Courage doesn’t necessarily come with an absence of fear. In fact, being courageous normally involves taking action in spite of fear. It’s knowing full well that something will be dangerous or hard, but doing it anyway.
Bravery tends to be more spontaneous, whereas courage comes with a high degree of choice and forethought.
For example, think of a child on the playground who makes the conscious decision to defend another student and stand up to a bully.
Or someone who takes out their phone to record police brutality, knowing the potential repercussions they may face.
That’s what courage is.
In either of these examples, the person has a real choice and the ability to simply walk away from the situation and avoid putting themselves in harm’s way. But they take action anyway when it’s the right thing to do.
A courageous person makes scary choices in a particular situation that seems worth fighting for. They do this even if their mind gives them lots of reasons why it might be a bad idea.