Life & Wisdom Quote by Barbara Deming

Deming’s line refuses to flatter our inner life. It demotes fear from sovereign to afterthought, not because fear is fake, but because it’s a terrible strategist. The sentence is built like a set of marching orders: “think first” and “think later” turns morality into sequence, not mood. Right action doesn’t wait for emotional permission; it generates the conditions in which fear can finally be handled.

The intent is quietly radical. Deming isn’t offering a self-help bromide about bravery. She’s sketching a discipline for political and ethical life, especially the kind she was known for: nonviolent resistance that demands public risk. In that context, “coping with one’s fears” can become an endless rehearsal that conveniently delays the moment of consequence. She names the trap: when we treat fear-management as prerequisite, we reward anxiety with control over our choices.

Subtext: clarity is an ethical technology. “The action that is right” implies that rightness is legible enough to act on even when your body is screaming. Deming’s moral confidence isn’t naive; it’s tactical. You can’t always control whether you’re afraid, but you can decide whether fear gets veto power.

The phrasing also flips a common cultural script. Modern life often frames emotions as the truest compass; Deming suggests they’re data, not directives. Do the right thing first, and then tend to the psychic fallout like a responsible caretaker. Fear becomes part of the cost of conscience, not the excuse to postpone it.