What’s the definition of courage? To make war upon ruling ideals.
Any of you think you can do better than that? Let’s hear it! 
Thats the definition of what it is to be needlessly antagonistic. Why not make war on all false ruling ideals? How could a ruling ideal be wrong in virtue of being a ruling ideal? What is courageous about attacking correct ideals?
Ask the early Christians who were persecuted in ancient Rome.
Curage: The ability to overcome fear when the benifits of doing so outwigh the risks involved.
The courage of others is spectacle, and the courage we feel is real, and courage past threatens for tomorrow will show if we are brave before the fear of death and pain because people change but the need for courage remains.
Courage is doing the right thing when nobody’s watching…and when everybody is.
‘Courage’ is another ego wank for people who believe in (the ego wank of) ‘free-will’ and ‘choice’.
Courage is a cowardly dog.
And courage as a virtue is the presence of fear and uncertainty but doing something constructive and beneficial not only to one’s self about it.
Courage is asking the prettiest girl to the dance when you are a total utter shy geek.
Courage is standing up to a superior force knowing that you will lose.
Courage is smiling even though you are broken with pain just so that you can relieve other’s anxieties.
Courage is the kid that finally stands up to an abusive parent.
Courage is doing something that takes you past what you thought your limits were.
Courage can also be very stupid. It does not take intelligence to be courageous it just takes need or desperation. Generally thinking does not figure into courage.
Courage is a verb, not a noun. Even living takes courage.
Not so on the last point. It is possible to hate fear and to always move against it, but there are examples of people caught in cycles of revenge and raiding who were literally cut up and burned before their own eyes, and they took it out of a very specific rational consideration, that to show themselves unable to face death and pain with courage, and pride, that they would bring down contumely on their people, and greater and greater waves of violence. We live in a world where we must often keep peace with people for whom we have no respect, but in the past such a situation was unheard of. True courage is fully the result of reason. Fatalism, believing that you are doomed or saved and mostly saved has let many risk their lives for no reward. That would be foolish, as is religious faith. It is as in the example of Jesus for every Christian. If you believe you are saved, and have eternal life, where is the danger in giving up this one, just like a Muslim. It is like saying of Jesus, If he could not be killed, what had he to fear. When you think you only have this life and you give it up out of courage, facing uncertainty and ignorance, that is courage because the unknown could be anything, or nothing, and which is worse?
Dying takes more.
Courage is a noun because it expresses a condition, and as a condition, courage is a form of relationship. If you were the last person on earth, nothing would finally mean nothing. The difference between death and life would be nil. Of the options faced, life would take as much courage as death, so there would be no greater courage in either situation. Since the death of the species would be imminant, your death would be the death of all, but there would be no relationship, no one to note your life and exploits, no one to share reality with, and so reality itself would die with you. Humanity finds value in courage, and value is meaning, but without humanity, courage would have no meaning.
…it takes courage to act on one’s convictions - my mother would always say that to us.
Your mom was wrong. Knowledge is virtue, but we seldom know enough to do, so we do what we do out of ignorance, and conviction only makes that action easier. The courage needed in the face of reality is to admit ones ignorance, and accept that life means facing a thousand inigmas for every certain answer in ones pocket. To act we must deny ignorance, and act the fool. Better to do little, think much, and act when forced, because no one does evil except out of a certain conviction that one is doing well. Say hey to your Ma. With respect.
My mother was not wrong: she was never wrong in any wisdom she shared with us - I will pass on your respects to my mum.
I am forever acting on my convictions lately: to make a positive difference in this staid world of ours…
Courage: placing your interests or physical/mental health at risk(usually voluntarily)
You are just acting. Consider that if you want to make the world change, that doing nothing makes better sense. Don’t cooperate with evil and it will die for lack of victims. Just stop. People will trip over you, and they will never move quicker of feel more alive. Bartleby the Scriviner had it about right. Thanks.
Which is need or desperation,not thinking nor intelligence. Reasoning in desperate or needful times does not need to use either
…acting on my convictions also includes inaction, when neccessary - did I say otherwise? you seem to have assumed that they are not one and the same…
Doing nothing doesn’t always make better sense though, once a situation has been analysed/assessed the route to take is then determined: to act or to observe - I have seen others forever just observing/inacting, and the situation has remained the same/unresolved: I am all for solving unsavoury situations and making others live’s happier/better/more viable…
You keep inacting if you want, and I’ll do what I do best: having the courage to act on my convictions!
Thanks! 
‘To prove a conviction is quite senseless; rather, it is important to prove that one has a right to be so convinced … Conviction is an objection, a question mark, a défi [“challenge”] (very popular error: having the courage of one’s convictions. Rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one’s convictions! ! !’
-Nietzsche’s nachlasse, Spring 1888 14 [159]
For Nietzsche, it’s a sign of cowardice to spare your own convictions from attack.
I myself would say that sometimes it takes courage to embrace your virtue, being when it runs contrary to ruling ideals.