Daily Inspiration Quote by Jeremy Collier

Courage, Collier insists, isn’t a gut impulse or a theatrical flourish; it’s an intellectual achievement. “True courage is a result of reasoning” reads like a rebuke to the swaggering bravado that passed for honor in Restoration England, when duels, drinking, and showy libertinism were coded as “manliness.” A clergyman who made enemies by publicly scolding the stage for its moral rot, Collier had every reason to distrust performative bravery. He’s arguing for a steadier model: the person who has thought through fear, consequence, and duty won’t be easily manipulated by panic or peer pressure.

The second line sharpens the claim into a fortress metaphor. “A brave mind is always impregnable” doesn’t mean invincible in the superhero sense; it means unbreachable by intimidation, seduction, or fashion. Collier’s theology lurks just beneath the surface: reasoned courage aligns the will with principle, and principle becomes a kind of internal citadel. The “mind” is the battleground, not the body. If your convictions are coherent, you can be threatened, mocked, even harmed, and still remain unconquered in the only realm that finally counts to a moralist: consent.

There’s also a sly polemic here. Collier elevates rational moral judgment over the era’s love of spectacle, including the stage’s glamorous villains and rakish heroes. He’s trying to rewire what people admire: less applause for nerve, more respect for disciplined thought that can’t be stormed.