Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk, and to act.

Meaning: Decisive action can create opportunities that hesitation misses. Courage may help someone benefit from an opening, though it cannot control luck or guarantee success.

Meaning: An undertaking with known hazards may require accepting some exposure to them. Battle and wounds make that point forcefully, without requiring someone to take an unreasonable risk or treating caution as cowardice.

Meaning: What someone feared may have been worse than what actually happened. The comparison can bring perspective after an event, without deciding in advance that a concern is groundless or dismissing the distress of being frightened.

Meaning: A reasonable request may open an opportunity that remains closed if you never ask. The possibility of refusal need not prevent a polite enquiry.