Daily Inspiration Quote by Mignon McLaughlin

Courage, in McLaughlin's hands, is stripped of its Hollywood superpower. It is not foresight. It is movement. The line refuses the comforting myth that brave people somehow know how things will turn out. They don't; they just keep walking when the path bends out of view.

The craft is in the geometry. "Corners" are everyday obstacles, not dragons: a hard conversation, a risky application, a vote that will make you unpopular at dinner. Corners also imply the limits of perception. You can only see what's in front of you, which makes hesitation feel rational. McLaughlin concedes that rationality - "can't see" - then pivots with a blunt, almost impatient "anyway". That's the emotional hinge: courage isn't the absence of doubt; it's the decision that doubt doesn't get veto power.

As a journalist who wrote widely on domestic life and social mores, McLaughlin was speaking from a mid-century culture that prized composure and punished messy uncertainty, especially in private spheres. Her aphorism quietly argues against that performative certainty. It validates the stammer, the imperfect plan, the leap made without a guarantee. In a media climate that sells confidence as competence, the quote lands as a small act of resistance: stop waiting for clarity to confer permission.

It's also a rebuke to cowardice's favorite alibi - "I just need more information". Sometimes you do. Often you don't. The corner isn't hiding a map; it's hiding reality. Courage is agreeing to meet it.