Quietly, “Do you know, courage is not being without fear. It’s acting despite that fear. I suspect you find that easy in the heat of the moment, yes? When you don’t have to think. But when someone you care about is hurting, you worry over everything. You’re always unsure if what you’ve done is right.”
“The way that I was raised has a completely different way of describing courage. But I think I like yours better.
Actually that’s pretty accurate. I’m always worrying about whether what I’ve done has actually helped more people than it’s hurt.”
“One of my favourite books has a fun way of putting it: ‘we are never given to know the count of the living’. It means, you can’t know the good you’ve done. Help is so … subtle. Like dropping a pebble into a pond — you can see the ripples on the surface, but you have no idea what it changes underneath.”